BERW - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Shen Yuyao did not know the answer. The things she had at hand were far too few, so few that there was no way to rely on the intelligence she currently possessed to deduce the truth.

Fortunately, the Empress's attitude let Shen Yuyao confirm part of the answer.

After Shen Yuyao finished recounting the Crown Prince's request to leave the palace, Zheng Wanwan had already gone red in the face with fury. Even her rouge could not conceal her anger; she looked even more spirited than when she had been lying abed, sick and listless from her headache.

"That wretch! He dares defy an imperial command! Does he not know he is under confinement by His Majesty?"

Zheng Wanwan could hardly believe that the one coming up with this foolish scheme to leave the palace at such a time was the Crown Prince, the son she had been so proud of.

The Crown Prince in her memory was not like this at all. Who on earth had swapped out her son?

Someone bring her son back to her this instant!

Looking at Zheng Wanwan's furious gaze, Shen Yuyao dubbed in a bit of inner monologue for her in her mind. Perhaps, in Zheng Wanwan's eyes, she would rather believe the Crown Prince had been cursed, or swapped for another person, or had come down with some manner of brain-rotting illness.

In any case, she was unwilling to believe that her excellent son had now gone mad for love, his rebellious phase arriving late, opposing her and the Emperor over a palace maid and an unborn child.

Or, to put it more nobly, opposing this feudal society rife with notions of rank and pedigree? Opposing the deeply rooted rules of this world.

Reaching this point in her thoughts, Shen Yuyao felt a little like clapping. The Crown Prince truly was something. She thoroughly approved of him stubbornly going his own way and being a lone hero!

Only then would she have a grander show to watch.

Because Shen Yuyao had said beforehand that she was not to get angry, the Empress cursed a couple of times and then calmed down.

"Actually, last night at the banquet, when he suddenly stood up and revealed his intentions to your Father, I knew he had already made up his mind. He has been like this since he was small, impossibly stubborn. Nine oxen could not drag him back."

As she spoke, Zheng Wanwan took Shen Yuyao's hand. "Yuyang, you must help Mother. Talk to your elder brother, persuade him not to go on like this. If this matter escalates, those censors at court, with tongues like arrows, will never let him off!"

"Do not worry, Mother. Your daughter thinks the same, but Imperial Elder Brother will not listen to me. The Senior Consort says the palace maid is already with child and will give birth soon. It would not do for a child of the imperial house to be left adrift outside. If word spread, would it not become a joke at the imperial house's expense?"

Shen Yuyao's words calmed Zheng Wanwan considerably. She was the Empress; before she was a mother, she was the Empress.

Just as an emperor, to govern the realm and to keep the outer court and inner palace at peace, could not act on impulse, and when necessary had to set his own joys, sorrows, likes, and dislikes behind the state, so too was it for the Empress.

The position of Mother of the Realm was not so easy to hold. To secure that seat, and for the peace of the inner palace and the face of the imperial house, Zheng Wanwan had once sacrificed a great many things.

Now, she would likewise have to sacrifice a part.

Such as that imperial grandson she had never once laid eyes on.

Zheng Wanwan lowered her eyes. In the shadow cast by her lashes, the look in them shifted swiftly from fury to a dead silence, like stagnant water, carrying a thick omen of ill.

That was killing intent. Zheng Wanwan wanted to kill that palace maid outside the palace, and her unborn child?

Realizing this, Shen Yuyao inwardly cried foul. She had no wish to kill anyone by proxy. That palace maid had nothing to do with her, so why wade into these muddy waters?

"Mother, what Consort Qin means is that she wishes to take the child into the palace and raise it. If Imperial Elder Brother is willing, it can be recorded under her name. The palace maid herself holds no rank, so the child would in any case be recorded under the Crown Princess. It is only that the Eastern Palace presently has no Crown Princess, and the Senior Consort holds the highest rank of all. She has no child of her own, so it would be quite fitting."

Zheng Wanwan's eyes stirred faintly; she seemed to think this idea was not bad.

If Qin Shujun could raise the child, so much the better. She herself would not have to lift a hand, and it would spare the bond between mother and son with the Crown Prince.

"But doing so would be a bit too merciful. The Crown Prince is bewitched by that palace maid and cannot tell right from wrong. Who knows, while she lives, what further trouble she might stir up."

This was not the first time Zheng Wanwan had moved against another, and her methods were certainly not gentle. The plan Qin Shujun and Shen Yuyao approved of was far too merciful.

If she was going to act, she had to finish it thoroughly. Leaving a source of disaster would only bring ruin upon herself in days to come.

Zheng Wanwan was still considering. It happened that just then a palace maid reported the meal was ready, and she shifted the subject to eating, showing no wish to continue.

Shen Yuyao could not quite figure out Zheng Wanwan's intentions. With so many palace servants about, she could not inquire further, so she could only commit Zheng Wanwan's behavior to memory and plan to ask Qu Yanyue once she returned how this matter would end.

And whether she should still go help the Crown Prince that night.

After the meal, Shen Yuyao did not linger and took her leave directly.

Zheng Wanwan, preoccupied, did not keep her, and gave her another pile of gifts. Shen Yuyao had left Yongkang Hall that morning with only three or five palace servants; by the time she returned in the evening, there were big boxes and small boxes trailing behind her, a heap of treasures.

Shen Yuyao loved a bit of coin, and her birth mother in this world loved it just the same. Seeing those treasures, she pulled Shen Yuyao into her arms and called her "sweetheart" several times over, impossibly affectionate.

Shen Yuyao noted this to herself: in the future, she could use these shiny golden things to please Qu Yanyue.

Qu Yanyue's senior palace maid, Sujiu, came forward and led the palace servants to tally the gifts into the storeroom. The lively main hall grew much quieter, and the people fewer.

Qu Yanyue drew Shen Yuyao toward the rear hall. That was her bedchamber, where only one or two trusted confidants waited, and where they could speak privately.

One thing could be seen from this.

Whether it was the Crown Prince's Senior Consort or the Empress, both dismissed their attendants and kept not a single palace servant by their side. This could be seen as caution, or as a lack of trust in anyone in the palace.

Shen Yuyao recounted everything she had seen and heard on her outing that day to Qu Yanyue, and she found that she was like a speaking tube, carrying words wherever she went.

That was not bad either, spectating drama while creating new drama.

She truly was a qualified peripheral spectator of the drama.

In the course of her telling, Shen Yuyao also raised the question she had held back all day: why were the Central Palace and the Eastern Palace so trusting of her?

"When you were small, you were taken to be raised at the Empress's knee for a time. Only after I was promoted to Noble Consort were you taken back. Have you forgotten?" As Qu Yanyue spoke of it, her expression was faint; neither sorrow nor joy showed.

Shen Yuyao could only be sure that this matter, for Qu Yanyue, was something that put her in a poor mood whenever it was raised.

"How old was your daughter then? How could I remember so clearly? In all these years no one around me has ever spoken of it. It is only that the Empress and the Crown Prince have always been especially good to me."

Shen Yuyao was certain she had not seen this past in the Original Owner's memories.

Qu Yanyue did not doubt her upon hearing this. "Indeed. You were only just born when you were taken away, and when you were sent back you could not even speak. It is only natural you do not remember them. It is simply that, because of that bond, the Empress regards you as half a daughter in her heart. Even though you are mine, she still dotes on you. Speaking of it, you have been close to the Crown Prince since childhood. The Crown Prince resembles your true elder brother more than your Third Imperial Brother does."

"We are all Father's children! And Third Imperial Brother has disliked me since we were small, so I dislike him too." As she spoke, Shen Yuyao feigned anger and lowered her head, while in her mind she rifled through her memories again and again.

"When you were taken away, he was already old enough to remember things. He has never liked this matter, and it made him fixate. Do not blame him."

Qu Yanyue did not continue, nor did she explain to Shen Yuyao how it was that she had been taken away so soon after birth.

Qu Yanyue had indeed not been Noble Consort at first, but she had entered the palace as a Palace Lady, which by rights was a high rank; it should not have been enough that she could not even keep her child.

Something must have happened then that kept Shen Yuyao from remaining by her side.

Fortunately, Qu Yanyue did not guard her heart against Shen Yuyao because of this, nor was she jealous that Shen Yuyao was on good terms with the Empress and the Crown Prince.

To Qu Yanyue, the Eastern Palace's position as Crown Prince had previously been very secure, and neither she nor her son had any chance. If the Crown Prince were to succeed to the throne in the future, Shen Yuyao's good relations with him would instead be a safeguard for the latter half of her life.

After all, as a mother, she could not protect Shen Yuyao for a lifetime.

But now it was different.

Qu Yanyue thought of a possibility. Her breathing deepened, and her fingertips trembled twice, almost as if cramped.

"How could I ever blame my own elder brother, Mother Consort? Rest assured. Actually, Third Imperial Brother is quite good to me. On my birthday he even gave me a little pony. It is a pity I have had no time lately to go riding at the hunting grounds. Oh yes, Mother Consort, do you think I ought to go take a look at the South Palace Gate tonight or not?"

Shen Yuyao was indeed itching to go. She now possessed immense strength but had no place to use it. Surely she could not spend every day snapping wood in her chambers?

If she took up riding and martial training, perhaps she could give this great strength a plausible origin, and in the future wield it openly without the danger of her character collapsing.

Very good, this matter would be put on the agenda first! The most pressing thing at present was still the grand drama of the evening. Should she go watch it in person or not?

"Go. Why not go?"

Qu Yanyue struck the final word. "Not only will you go, you will swagger in and make a scene. The more effort you put in, the less they can say anything against you."

Qu Yanyue had no thought of keeping Shen Yuyao away from the maelstrom. In this palace, one did not fear people making trouble; one feared people who did not.

Everything in the palace depended on the Emperor's favor, and the Emperor was, after all, only a man. His heart was small and could hold only a few people. If one did not stir things up now and then, perhaps the Emperor would forget they existed.

Qu Yanyue knew all too well: without the Emperor's favor, she could not live comfortably in this palace at all. She meant to vie for favor, and not only she herself: she would make her children vie for it too. If the Crown Prince did not want the pressure that such favor brought, her son would gladly take it!

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