Tạ Thanh Uyển slowly rolled her eyes and saw me kneeling on the ground.
Then, trembling, she braced herself against the bed and sat up. She climbed down, then dropped to her knees before the emperor with a thud.
“Please save me, Father! My mother consort…” Tạ Thanh Uyển’s eyes filled with tears. “She wanted to drown me.”
The moment she said that, the entire hall erupted in shock.
Consort Mai immediately shrieked, “What nonsense are you talking about?!”
“Mother Consort had someone push me into the water, intending to drown me and frame Consort Jiang. That way, she could raise Second Princess Thụy Chiêu…”
Before Tạ Thanh Uyển could finish, Consort Mai rushed forward and slapped her, then shouted furiously:
“Did Giang thị put some kind of spell on you?! I’m your mother consort! If you won’t take my side, fine—but now you’re conspiring with outsiders to harm me!”
“How dare you!” the emperor roared. “Do you have no regard for me at all?!”
Only then did Consort Mai realize she had lost control. She hurriedly explained, “Y-Your Majesty, I was only afraid Uyển’er had been deceived by wicked people. I lost my temper in the heat of the moment. After all, I am Uyển’er’s birth mother…”
“You’re not,” Tạ Thanh Uyển cut her off.
Her eyes were bright now, and she straightened her back. After bowing to the emperor, she said calmly, “Father, Consort Mai is not Uyển’er’s birth mother.”
11.
Tạ Thanh Uyển’s words sent shock waves through the hall.
Even Noble Consort Yu rose to her feet, visibly rattled.
The emperor’s face darkened. “What do you mean?”
“Ever since I was old enough to understand, Mother Consort has never liked me. No matter what I do, if I displease her even a little, she beats me, scolds me, and punishes me.” Tạ Thanh Uyển rolled up her sleeve, revealing the bruises on her arm.
There were so many injuries that every consort who saw them looked stricken.
“I thought I wasn’t trying hard enough, and that was why Mother Consort didn’t love me. Then, one day, I accidentally heard her talking about my birth, and I learned that she hadn’t given birth to me. Mother Consort was unable to bear children. To secure her position, ten years ago she had someone find a mute female slave outside the palace and make her carry a child for her. Once the slave had given birth, Mother Consort had her killed.”
“For ten years, Mother Consort used me to get Father’s attention. Then, when Second Princess Thụy Chiêu was born, she saw how much Father favored her and plotted against Noble Lady Liu, hoping to take Second Princess Thụy Chiêu for herself. But in the end, the princess was bestowed upon Consort Jiang.”
“Mother Consort grew resentful. Yesterday, she discussed with someone how to use my death to frame Consort Jiang.”
At the end, Tạ Thanh Uyển choked up and said, “But Consort Jiang is the kindest person to me in the entire palace. Father once taught me that we must never forget a kindness or betray those who have helped us.”
When she finished, not only the emperor but also the empress and I were stunned.
Tạ Thanh Uyển really wasn’t Consort Mai’s daughter.
Consort Mai was now terrified and babbling. “N-No, Your Majesty, that’s not true. I didn’t do it. Thanh Uyển is just a child. S-Someone must have taught her to lie…”
The emperor closed his eyes. After resting for a moment, he said, “Summon the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review and reopen Noble Lady Liu’s case.”
He paused, then glanced at Consort Mai. “That vicious woman of the Mai family is to be stripped of her rank and reduced to a commoner. She is to be granted death by suicide.”
Before long, eunuchs came to drag Consort Mai away.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I know I was wrong!” Consort Mai knelt before the emperor, clutching the hem of his robe and kowtowing again and again. “I truly know I was wrong. Please spare my life!”
Seeing that the emperor remained unmoved, Consort Mai turned to Noble Consort Yu. “Your Highness, save me! You were the one who said we should frame Consort Jiang! You can’t just stand by and do nothing!”
At her name, Noble Consort Yu looked flustered for a moment, but quickly composed herself and shouted, “After all the evil you’ve done, you still dare to slander me?”
Then she said to the eunuchs, “What are you waiting for? Take this criminal away!”
Seeing Noble Consort Yu wash her hands of the whole affair, Consort Mai wanted to tear her to pieces. Even as the eunuchs dragged her away, she kept shrieking, “Well, Ngu Âm! You’ve crossed the bridge and pulled it up behind you! One day, you’ll suffer even worse than I have! Even as a ghost, I’ll never forgive you!”
With the truth finally clear, I’d spent the entire afternoon kneeling in wet clothes. My nerves couldn’t take it anymore. My vision went black, and I fainted.
12.
By the time I woke up, three days had passed.
Noble Lady Liu’s case had been cleared up. As it turned out, Consort Mai had indeed framed her.
The eldest princess’s words were also entirely true. Consort Mai’s entire family had deceived the emperor, and he ordered their extermination, down to the ninth degree of kinship.
Perhaps out of guilt, the emperor promoted me to Consort and granted me the title of Virtuous. He also bestowed a great deal of gold, silver, and jewels upon me.
As a result, Lâm Nguyệt Palace once again became lively.
Every consort who came and went was eager to curry favor with me.
Fortunately, A Dung was perceptive and turned them all away at the door.
While I was recovering, Tạ Thừa Ý and Tạ Thừa Càn stayed by my side every day.
The empress told me that during the three days I was unconscious, the two children had been so frightened they refused to eat and kept watch over me.
Because of Consort Mai, the New Year festivities were anything but peaceful.
After the Lantern Festival, I recovered from my cold. When I heard that Tạ Thanh Uyển was living alone, I took the initiative to seek out the emperor and ask him to let me raise her.
The emperor looked somewhat surprised. “Don’t you resent the child?”
I smiled and replied, “Your Majesty, she’s only a child.”
On the day Tạ Thanh Uyển moved into my palace, her eyes were red. I opened my arms to her. “I’m glad you’ve escaped that living hell.”
She suddenly threw her arms around me and burst into tears. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
I gently patted her back. “You did nothing wrong. There’s no need to apologize.”
After all, she was only a ten-year-old child.
No matter what Consort Mai had done, she shouldn’t have had to suffer for it.
After Tạ Thanh Uyển moved into Lâm Nguyệt Palace, I began my life as the sole caretaker of four children.
The empress’s health kept worsening, and Tạ Thừa Càn simply moved into my palace.
My bed was already small, yet every night I had to cram three children into it.
After finishing Journey to the West, I’d tell them Water Margin; after Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Every night, I had to talk until my mouth was dry before the chattering children would finally fall fast asleep.
Sometimes I was secretly glad that Thụy Chiêu was still little and had a wet nurse to help care for her.
Otherwise, I couldn’t even imagine.
After I became Virtuous Consort, the empress felt comfortable entrusting me with some of the palace affairs.
Earlier, Lady Mai had falsely accused Noble Consort Yu before the emperor. Although Noble Consort Yu had proved her innocence, the accusation still made the emperor suspicious, and he stripped her of her authority over the Six Palaces.
She also kept a low profile for a while.
That lasted until the empress’s birthday, when an assassin broke into the palace.
12.
The twelfth day of the second month was the Flower Festival, and it was also the empress’s birthday.
When spring arrived, the empress’s illness had eased, so the emperor decided to hold a birthday banquet for her on the day of the Flower Festival.
The empress had originally wanted to leave the arrangements for her birthday banquet to me.
Unexpectedly, the emperor suddenly assigned the task to Noble Consort Yu, who had been out of favor for many days.
I couldn’t understand why the emperor had done that.
It wasn’t until the birthday banquet that an assassin disguised as a eunuch drew his sword and charged at the emperor.
It was like watching everything in slow motion. I saw the consorts and noblewomen from powerful families panic, and the palace maids and eunuchs flee in every direction.
I also saw—
The empress rise and shield the emperor.
As the empress fell, I shoved A Dung, who was shielding me, aside as if I’d gone mad and ran to her.
“Call the imperial physicians! Call the imperial physicians!” I clamped my hands over the empress’s bleeding abdomen and cried out in anguish.
“Tri Ý, I’m so tired.” The empress leaned against me and spoke weakly. “From now on, I’m entrusting Thừa Càn to you.”
“No!” Tears streamed down my face. “I won’t raise Thừa Càn. You’re not allowed to fall asleep. You have to raise your own child!”
She smiled. “You have a sharp tongue, but a heart as soft as tofu.”
I sobbed and begged her, “Please, hold on a little longer. I’m begging you—the imperial physicians will be here soon.”
She didn’t answer me, but looked toward the emperor. “Your Majesty.”
The emperor, who had been frozen in shock the whole time, finally came to his senses. His voice trembled. “I… I’m here.”
“I don’t hate you anymore,” the empress said.
“I know you wanted to use my birthday banquet to test the Ngu clan. I don’t blame you. I only ask that, for the sake of the three members of the Lâm family who died because of you, you treat the Crown Prince and the Virtuous Consort well.”
The emperor turned deathly pale at her words. His lips moved, but it took him a long time to reply. “I… I promise you.”
After hearing his answer, the empress smiled and closed her eyes. She drew her last breath in my arms.
The emperor tried to touch her cheek, but I slapped him hard.
I screamed at him, “The empress’s health had clearly been improving. Why? Why did you treat her this way?”
“Today is her birthday!”
I sobbed, “Do you have no heart? You plotted to have the empress’s father and brothers killed—why couldn’t you spare her, too? She was your wife, the one you married when you were young!”