“Selected Woman Meng, that is where you are wrong—and spectacularly wrong.” Jieyu Jiang, who had once followed Consort Shu Meng everywhere and had even publicly clashed with Nalan Xuan in order to curry favor with her, had now found herself a new patron. Eager to make her allegiance clear, she had no objection whatsoever to humiliating her former mistress in front of the new one.
“First, perhaps Your Highness has been in the Cold Palace so long that you have fallen behind on affairs in the imperial harem. His Majesty issued a decree this very morning promoting Virtuous Lord to Virtuous Noble Lord. The person standing before you is no longer merely Virtuous Lord, but Virtuous Noble Lord, who is empowered to assist in administering the Six Palaces. Selected Woman Meng should take care not to address him incorrectly. You have already lost your former status; it would hardly do to lose your manners as well.”
“Second, it was an imperial decree that sentenced the entire household of the Gurun Prince Consort to death, issued personally by His Majesty during morning court. It has absolutely nothing to do with Virtuous Noble Lord. Of course, Virtuous Noble Lord is the treasure of His Majesty’s heart. If he feels wronged or unhappy, naturally His Majesty will not be in a pleasant mood either. The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it; finding the culprit and venting one’s anger there is only reasonable.”
Elio’s Notes: “The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it” (解鈴還須繫鈴人) means that the person responsible for creating a problem is ultimately the one best placed—or expected—to resolve it.
“And third, His Majesty has actually treated you rather generously. Everyone else in the Gurun Prince Consort’s household has been sentenced to death, while your life alone has been spared. Clearly, His Majesty has shown you considerable mercy. Even after committing such an enormous crime, you were allowed to live. A person ought to know how to be grateful.”
Jieyu Jiang delivered the entire speech with astonishing fluency. Her ability to change sides with the wind had clearly reached the pinnacle of mastery. Had Nalan Xuan not personally witnessed it, he might almost have believed that all those earlier scenes in which she had confronted him so fiercely that both sides ended up red-faced with anger were nothing more than something he had imagined in his sleep.
“Good! Good!! Very good indeed! Once the wall falls, everyone rushes to give it another shove! Every last one of you wishes I were dead! You wish my entire family had died miserable deaths!” All of Meng Zhen’s resentment erupted into screams. The gulf in status between them had become an insurmountable barrier. Restrained by people on both sides, she had no way to get close; the only weapon she still possessed was her mouth.
“Selected Woman Meng, that accusation is rather serious. Whether we want such a thing or not is hardly ours to decide. We…” Jieyu Jiang pinched her silk handkerchief between her fingers, raised her hand in an elegant orchid-finger gesture, and lightly covered her lips with a smile of blatant provocation. “At most, we are only here to watch the spectacle.”
“Jiang Yao!! You bitch! Traitor!! And you!” Meng Zhen turned viciously toward Nalan Xuan. “With that foxlike face, all you know how to do is bewitch His Majesty until he insists on slaughtering my entire clan! Nalan Xuan, aren’t you afraid of retribution? When you wake from your dreams in the middle of the night, aren’t you afraid we’ll come to claim your life?!” From beginning to end, Nalan Xuan had not spoken a word. Not even his expression had changed, as though his mind were wandering somewhere far away and none of this had anything to do with him.
Coming to the Cold Palace had not been Nalan Xuan’s idea, yet he had come all the same because Han Ruifeng and Jieyu Jiang had suddenly appeared, and because even he found the assassination affair suspicious despite Feng Xuanyi having disposed of it with ruthless speed. Too many questions remained unresolved in his heart, and he wanted answers. He knew perfectly well that this was not where those answers lay, yet as he looked at the miserable woman before him, alongside his sympathy there was another sensation he found difficult to describe. However hard he tried to suppress it, a strange sense of satisfaction—something that could almost be called pleasure at seeing her downfall—rose from somewhere deep within him. The feeling was unfamiliar, catching him off guard and even frightening him. From the first moment he had seen Meng Zhen, he had inexplicably disliked and resented her, as though merely knowing she existed made him uncomfortable, but he had never imagined that the instinctive hostility between them ran so deep that they seemed as incompatible as fire and water.
Nalan Xuan could understand why Jieyu Jiang had turned against her former patron. Her family background was unremarkable, her imperial favor inferior to others’, and her rank sat awkwardly in the middle—neither high nor low. In an imperial harem where people could practically devour one another alive, standing still meant falling behind. At her rank, the easiest way to survive was to find someone powerful to rely upon. Once that person had been Consort Shu Meng and, behind her, the Gurun Prince Consort. But that great structure had collapsed overnight. The only people now worth attaching herself to were the empress and Nalan Xuan. In palace rank, the empress stood above him; in imperial favor and the standing of his natal clan, however, she could not compare with him at all.
What Nalan Xuan had not expected was that in the space of a single day, Jieyu Jiang could become this absolute, this ruthless.
At a gesture, the two people restraining Meng Zhen released their hold. After being pinned down for so long, Meng Zhen finally got what she wanted and surged forward the instant she was free, seizing Nalan Xuan by the collar. Nalan Xuan did not seem particularly concerned. Instead, he raised a hand and stopped the servants who were about to rush forward.
There were many questions he wanted to ask, but the moment he tried to voice them, he suddenly realized there was no point. Even if someone really had instructed Meng Zhen to act as she had, considering everything that had happened between them, she would never tell him the truth. And if no one had, then she herself did not understand the reason behind any of this; how could she possibly give him an explanation?
Looking at Nalan Xuan now, surrounded by attendants and able to summon a response with a single word, Meng Zhen suddenly laughed. There was no hatred or venom in the expression, no crazed fury. Instead, what appeared in her eyes was profound pity and sympathy. She reached out and lightly stroked the exquisite ornamentation at Nalan Xuan’s collar, her gaze almost sorrowful. “Do you think you won? Heh… You did win. From the looks of it, you certainly won. Virtuous Noble Lord—ha! You’re a Noble Lord now. Fine clothes, exquisite food, endless imperial favor, and a natal clan basking in limitless glory. But…” She suddenly rose onto her toes and leaned close, her warm breath nearly brushing Nalan Xuan’s face. “Aren’t you afraid when you think about what comes next? Other than the order in which we received favor, what difference is there between you and me? Young faces, powerful families, His Majesty’s favor granted to us as though it were only natural. That is why we could never stand one another. Why should you possess something I do not? Why should something that belongs to me suddenly have to be divided equally with you?”
“Am I wrong, Virtuous Noble Lord? That feeling of fighting and competing, of wanting to stand above everyone else and trample them beneath your feet…” Her smile became bright and beautiful again, almost as though she had returned to the days when she had been the radiant Consort Shu Meng basking in imperial favor. “So you wanted to use His Majesty’s favor and your family’s influence to crush me, and His Majesty listened to your poison and dealt so ruthlessly with me and my natal clan! Heh… It seems an old love really cannot compete with a new favorite. I have become the old love now, but you—when will you become one too? When will you come here and finally experience my grief and helplessness for yourself?”
“I’ll wait. I’ll stay right here and wait patiently, day after day and night after night. I’ll keep my eyes wide open and watch you destroy others and yourself until you follow in my footsteps!!” Her once-water-soft gaze abruptly sharpened, as though it had transformed into countless blades capable of cutting a person apart.
She shoved Nalan Xuan away with both hands. Having lost the support she had been leaning upon, Meng Zhen herself collapsed to the floor. Her expression turned distant and deranged, as though she had truly lost her mind. No amount of her former glory could fill the bleak emptiness and disappointment of this moment. Tears streamed down her face like pearls from a broken string. She did not scream or curse anymore; she simply sat there in silence, weeping without end.
“Imperial Cousin! I love you so much! I trusted you so completely! I gave so much for you—why can’t you see it?! Why do you believe this bastard? Why do you favor him and him alone?! For him, you despise me and cast me aside! For him, you would slaughter my entire clan! They are your relatives too!! What can he give you? What can he do for you? How could you be so merciless for his sake? Have you forgotten everything that happened between us?! Imperial Cousin!!”