For the loss of the child in his belly, Nalan Xuan could blame no one more than himself. He had trusted others far too easily. He knew perfectly well how treacherous human hearts could be, knew exactly what it meant for hidden arrows to be impossible to guard against, and had already suffered from that lesson more than once, yet he still refused to learn. As for those who had plotted this long in advance, they deserved to be torn into ten thousand pieces.
“Transmit this palace’s order. Liu Yong, former head of the Imperial Medical Academy—kill him on sight!” Nalan Xuan ground out the words through clenched teeth, his eyes blood-red. He looked like a demon risen from hell. If Liu Yong had been standing before him at that moment, Nalan Xuan would undoubtedly have thrown himself at the man and torn him apart without hesitation.
The abrupt change left Xiao Dezi unable to react.
“What? I am merely unable to get out of bed, and already all of you are treating me as though I were dead? Do my words no longer carry any weight?” Nalan Xuan raised a brow and flicked his gaze toward Xiao Dezi. The look was so sharp that Xiao Dezi immediately felt as though he were sitting on needles, cold sweat streaming down his cheeks.
“Th-this servant obeys! This servant will go at once!” Xiao Dezi fled in something very close to panic. He paid so little attention to where he was going that he stumbled and dropped straight to his knees. He did not dare make a sound. He sprang back to his feet and raced outside as though ghosts were chasing him.
Within the imperial palace, anyone who dared suggest that the orders of Virtuous Imperial Noble Lord carried no weight was simply courting death by provoking someone untouchable. Even His Majesty could hardly favor him enough, and not even the empress’s own authority could truly compare with his. Though Nalan Xuan was formally only assisting in the administration of the Six Palaces, everyone understood perfectly well where the real power lay—which person’s words could be brushed aside, whose orders could never be delayed, and whom one ought to curry favor with by every possible means.
“I heard Liu Yong has a little grandson who has only just reached one month old.” Nalan Xuan spoke coolly. Xiao Dezi, already almost at the doorway, shuddered and immediately stopped. Lowering his eyes respectfully, he answered, “Yes.”
“Then bring him to me as well. Since I no longer have a child of my own, I ought to find another child to comfort me.” The ruthlessness in his words made Xiao Dezi’s heart tremble.
Debts must always be repaid. Since you cannot repay this one yourself, then let your grandson repay it slowly in your place. A physician is supposed to have the heart of a parent. Surely you, of all people, will understand how I feel now.
Xiao Dezi turned to leave, only to freeze at the sound of a shout carrying from far down the corridor. Everyone inside the room dropped to their knees one after another like a row of falling dominoes to receive the decree.
“An imperial decree—!” Accompanied by a procession of palace servants, Mo Yan hurried in carrying a sealed yellow scroll in both hands. “Imperial Noble Lord is unwell and may receive the decree without performing the full rites.”
He unfolded the scroll and proclaimed in a ringing voice, “By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Virtuous Imperial Noble Lord is hereby appointed Empress. His honorific ‘Virtuous’ shall be changed to ‘Jade,’ and from this day forward he is granted residence in Fengyi Palace. Respect this decree!”
Elio’s Notes: Nalan Xuan’s honorific changes here from 賢, “Virtuous,” to 玉, “Jade.” From this decree onward, his formal title is Jade Empress. Jade traditionally carries associations of preciousness, refinement, and exalted status.
At that very same moment, another equally inexplicable imperial decree was being read inside Fengyi Palace. “By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: The Central Palace has failed in virtue and neglected the proper governance of the Six Palaces, causing Us to lose Our beloved son. Mindful of the bond of marriage between Us, We will not impose a harsher punishment. The empress is hereby stripped of her position, demoted to Proper Seventh-Rank Selected Woman, and confined to the Cold Palace. Respect this decree!”
One household rejoiced while another grieved. Since there could only ever be one position of empress, if someone new was to be invested, someone else necessarily had to surrender the seat.
“His Majesty has treated Your Majesty unjustly! What does Moon-Embracing Palace’s inability to protect the prince have to do with our mistress? Your Majesty has always treated His Majesty with complete sincerity and never dared neglect a single matter in administering the Six Palaces. Why should His Majesty punish Your Majesty for someone else’s failure after all your devotion?!”
Anyone would have struggled to accept such a baseless accusation falling from the sky. The dowry maid who had served He Yilan since childhood could not endure seeing her mistress subjected to such humiliation. Her face flushed red with fury, and she began protesting loudly without caring about anything else. Even if it cost her life, she wanted justice for her mistress.
He Yilan, however, raised a hand and stopped the maid’s indignant protests. She seemed completely indifferent to Feng Xuanyi’s ruthlessness and unpredictability. Her face remained composed, neither arrogant nor agitated. The enormous reversal in her status overnight seemed incapable of entering her heart at all. She watched the development of every person and every event with the detached calm—even coldness—of an outsider. “This consort… accepts the decree and thanks His Majesty for his grace.”
She lifted her skirts, knelt, kowtowed, removed the phoenix crown from her head, and accepted the few merciless lines written upon the decree. “May I ask, my lord, how is my father now? Has His Majesty implicated him in this matter?”
“Please rest assured, my lady. Your father is unharmed. He has simply been pleading with His Majesty to withdraw the decree on your behalf.”
Everyone knew that the emperor’s sudden investiture and deposition were difficult to accept. An emperor could favor whomever he wished, but this favoritism was far too blatant. A change in the position of empress inevitably drew the attention of the entire court, especially when the original empress had committed no genuine offense. She had accomplished no extraordinary achievement, but neither had she made any serious mistake. To assign blame this way seemed very much like magnifying a trivial matter and inventing guilt where none existed. Moreover, although male consorts had held formal ranks within the imperial harem since ancient times, there had never been precedent for a male empress. Such obvious partiality was difficult for anyone to find convincing.
The moment the decrees were issued, the court erupted. The aging Left Chancellor He Liangyu could no longer remain quietly at home and immediately entered the palace, kneeling outside the imperial study to request an audience. Unfortunately, no matter how much criticism existed outside, the precedents of Duke Meng and Marquis Dingbei made everyone cautious. No one dared act recklessly. Furthermore, although the appointment of an empress was an affair of state, it was also the emperor’s family affair. What standing did outsiders truly have to interfere? For court officials to insist on meddling in His Majesty’s household was little different from informing the emperor that they had grown tired of living. Thus, although everyone understood how partial and unjust the matter seemed, they could only hear about it and let it pass, unwilling—and even less daring—to pursue the question.
“Please trouble my lord to tell my father not to plead for me anymore. He should serve His Majesty faithfully. I will be fine.” He Yilan spoke with complete sincerity. There was no longer the slightest trace of an empress’s airs, yet neither was there even a hint of self-pity.
Nalan Xuan, meanwhile, was supposedly the one receiving joyous news and ought to have been celebrating, yet there was not the slightest happiness on his face. Instead, he had turned deathly pale. Everything had happened too suddenly. Feng Xuanyi already knew what had happened. He had once treasured this child beyond measure, yet after the child was lost, his first response was not to investigate or vent his rage, but to issue a decree compensating Nalan Xuan with the position of empress. Nalan Xuan could not help questioning the motive behind it. If moments ago he had still been trying to force himself to believe that Liu Yong had somehow dared to act openly and recklessly enough to sabotage the very patient entrusted to him, then this decree merely forced Nalan Xuan to recognize whom he now believed to be the true hand behind everything.
Without the emperor’s personal authorization, how could an insignificant imperial physician—one who had been warned over and over that the slightest mishap would cost him his head—possibly dare tamper with pregnancy-stabilizing medicine and destroy the child himself? No reward beneath Heaven would be great enough to make a man gamble not only his own life but the lives of his entire family. But if the person giving the order were the emperor, if it were an imperial command, then no reward would even be necessary. The crime of resisting the decree alone would be enough to destroy his entire household. Faced with that, there was nothing a person would not dare do, even climb a mountain of blades or descend into a cauldron of boiling oil, much less decide the life or death of someone completely unrelated to him. And if the emperor had not ordered it, why would Liu Yong flee in such haste for fear of the truth coming out and leaving him unable to escape responsibility? Why would His Majesty allow him to leave so easily at precisely the moment when Nalan Xuan and the child most needed medical care—especially Liu Yong, who had attended Moon-Embracing Palace all this time and knew Nalan Xuan’s condition better than anyone?