1.
When the Fifth Prince was brought to my palace, I was still fussing over a bowl of chilled mung bean soup.
Because my rank was low, my palace was allotted so little ice it was pitiful—not enough to cool the rooms, so I could only use it to make mung bean soup to beat the heat.
Even Eunuch Liu, who had come to deliver the imperial edict, was so hot he didn't want to stay. As soon as he finished reading it, he hurried to leave.
“Congratulations, Consort Jiang. This old servant still has business to attend to, so I'll take my leave.”
I bowed slightly and slipped the bracelet off my wrist. “Thank you for your trouble, Eunuch Liu.”
Eunuch Liu's eyes lit up at the sight of the jade bracelet. He accepted it discreetly, then said softly, “Now that Your Highness has been promoted to Consort and entrusted with raising a prince, the Palace Household Department certainly won't neglect you. I'll have someone bring over some ice in a little while.”
“Thank you, Eunuch Liu.”
After I saw Eunuch Liu out, my personal maid, A Dung, finally spoke up indignantly. “They're clearly bullying you because you have no power or influence and nobody to back you! You don't even have a child of your own yet, and now you have to raise someone else's child—and one everyone hates, at that…”
“A Dung!” I snapped. “Mind your manners. Leave!”
Not far away, the Fifth Prince shrank back a little behind his wet nurse. His doe-like eyes watched me cautiously.
I ladled out a bowl of mung bean soup, sat down, and called him over. “I've been cooking this for an hour. It's very sweet. Would you like some?”
He hesitated, then slowly came over when his wet nurse urged him.
But instead of taking the soup, he gave me a proper bow. “Thừa Ý pays his respects to Your Highness, Consort Jiang.”
I froze for a moment, then sighed softly.
I had transmigrated to the state of Qi a year earlier.
The original owner had the same name as me: Giang Tri Ý. She was the daughter of a ninth-rank official.
When I realized I'd not only transmigrated into the lowest-ranking consort in the imperial harem, but had no cheat-like advantage either, I started idling away my days in the palace.
At the time, Nguyệt Tần, the favored mistress of Lâm Nguyệt Palace where I lived, was in the emperor's good graces.
Because I was only average-looking and posed no threat to Nguyệt Tần, we got along fairly well.
That is, until half a month ago, when Nguyệt Tần's father was discovered to have embezzled. Her entire family was beheaded, and she was given a bolt of white silk to take her own life.
In this vast harem, the death of one consort was hardly a tragedy. But her Fifth Prince, Tạ Thừa Ý, suddenly became a hot potato no one wanted to take in.
After they passed him around, someone—no one knew who—reported to the emperor that Nguyệt Tần and I had gotten along. The emperor promptly issued an edict promoting me to Consort Jiang and ordering me to raise three-year-old Tạ Thừa Ý.
2.
Seeing the three-year-old in front of me already knew how to read people's expressions, I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
Before I transmigrated to the state of Qi, I'd worked as a preschool teacher for five years.
Taking care of children was what I did best.
I took a deep breath, sat down, and gazed at the child with admiration written all over my face. “I heard Thừa Ý made a kite a few days ago. You're amazing! I don't even know how to make one. Could you teach me?”
The quickest way to get close to a child is to praise them and let them be the teacher.
Sure enough, Tạ Thừa Ý, who had been visibly tense, relaxed. Then he asked, stumbling over his words a little, “R-really?”
“Of course! I've never seen a child so young who knows how to make a kite. Would you teach me?”
“I will!”
And just like that, it took me only half a day to bring Tạ Thừa Ý closer to me.
By evening, he was already sweetly calling me “Her Highness, Consort Jiang.”
Looking after a three-year-old wasn't the least bit troublesome for me. If anything, it came naturally.
Because of what had happened to Nguyệt Tần, the emperor seemed to hold a grudge against the Fifth Prince. He dumped the boy on me and then paid him no more attention.
The other consorts in the palace avoided me as if I were a snake or a scorpion.
I didn't have to attend the emperor, fight for favor in the palace, or endure childbirth, so of course I was happy.
But that peaceful life didn't last long.
At the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, the empress drank too much. When she went alone to the Hundred Chrysanthemum Garden to get some air, she suddenly had a heart attack and collapsed. Tạ Thừa Ý, who had gone to pick flowers for me, found her.
He promptly found eunuchs and palace maids, and they saved the empress's life.
Afterward, the empress sent a great many gifts to my palace.
The emperor also praised Tạ Thừa Ý at court.
For a while, consorts of every rank nearly broke down the threshold of my Lâm Nguyệt Palace.
The one good thing was that the empress found Tạ Thừa Ý clever and quick-witted, and specially permitted him to study with the Crown Prince.
But the lessons in reading and writing went on and on, and before long the Crown Prince was coming to my palace.
When Crown Prince Lý Thừa Càn once again came knocking on the gates of Lâm Nguyệt Palace in the middle of the night, clutching a little quilt because he was afraid of the dark, I finally asked what had been on my mind. “Your Highness isn't old enough to leave the palace and establish your own residence yet. Why don't you stay with Her Majesty the Empress?”
At my words, a trace of disappointment crossed Lý Thừa Càn's face. After a long while, he answered softly, “Mother… doesn't like me.”
3.
Though I didn't take part in the palace intrigues, I knew the backgrounds of the consorts here quite well.
The empress was the daughter of a general and the emperor's first wife. I heard that when he was still Crown Prince, the two had been very much in love.
But after the emperor ascended the throne, he grew wary of her father's and brothers' influence and ordered them to lead troops into battle. They both died on the battlefield. After that, their family declined, and she developed a heart condition.
I guessed the empress had been deeply hurt by the man who shared her bed, and so she couldn't bear the child who carried the emperor's blood.
That was only my guess.
At first I hadn't wanted to get involved in any of this trouble, but seeing the wary look on Tạ Thừa Càn's face softened my heart.
He was only a five-year-old child, after all.
In the end, Tạ Thừa Càn happily crawled under the covers with Tạ Thừa Ý and me.
Half-asleep, Tạ Thừa Ý asked in a soft, childish voice, “Has the Great Sage Equal to Heaven arrived?”
These days, I've been telling Tạ Thừa Ý stories from Journey to the West before bed.
He likes the Great Sage Equal to Heaven best.
“He’s your Crown Prince brother.”
I had assumed the Empress didn’t know that Tạ Thừa Càn sneaked to my palace in the middle of the night.
Until one day, while I was walking with the Empress, she suddenly said to me, though she was usually a woman of few words, “I don’t have much time left. The Crown Prince is very fond of you, so I’ll have to entrust his care to you in the future.”
I was a little frightened. I didn’t know why the Empress had suddenly said that. After thinking it over for a long while, I replied, “Your Highness is of such noble status; surely you’ll live a long life.”
She gave a bitter laugh and murmured self-mockingly, “How can I face living in this world? My father and elder brother must hate me to the bone.”
I still didn’t understand what the Empress meant.
When the first snow of early winter fell, the Empress took ill and couldn’t get out of bed.
The beloved Consort Yu took over management of the Six Palaces.
Consort Yu’s temperament was the complete opposite of the Empress’s. She was very good at winning people over.
After taking power, she not only excused the palace ladies from paying their daily respects, but also treated the other consorts generously. One day she’d reward them with a bolt of silk, the next with a set of jewelry, acting as though she were the new empress.
After that, the consorts visited the Empress’s palace less and less.
Only I brought Tạ Thừa Ý to the Empress’s palace every day to attend to her.
“You don’t have to do this,” the Empress said. “You’d be better off currying favor with Consort Yu than flattering someone like me, who’s about to die.”
“Your Highness, you mustn’t say such foolish things.” I handed the warm bowl of medicine to Tạ Thừa Càn and nudged him forward. “Go help your mother drink her medicine.”
Ever since the Empress fell ill, I had done everything I could to get her and Tạ Thừa Càn to spend more time together.
I could tell that the Empress didn’t actually dislike the child.
If what the Empress had said was true, and she didn’t have much time left, I didn’t want her and Tạ Thừa Càn to have too many regrets.
Tạ Thừa Ý lay beside the bed, staring intently as Tạ Thừa Càn fed the Empress her medicine. As soon as she swallowed the last sip, he was quick to push Tạ Thừa Càn aside and offer her the candy in his hand, lisping, “Mother, have some candy! Then it won’t taste bitter anymore!”
A faint smile flickered in the corner of the Empress’s eye. Only after the wet nurse had taken the two children away to their lessons did she quietly say to me, “Thank you.”
I tucked the hand warmer the palace maid had just refilled into her arms. “If you truly want to thank me, Your Highness, then please get well soon.”