BERW - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Crown Prince, you have been Crown Prince for twenty-one full years! Twenty-one full years! And you actually did such an absurd thing as fleeing the palace at night!"

Shen Chong's face was white with rage. Never in his life had he imagined that the Crown Prince, his pride and joy, would, two days running, do things that disappointed him beyond measure.

Shen Yuyao edged to one side, dodging the spittle Shen Chong sprayed as he spoke. Seeing that his face was about to turn the color of a liver with fury, she feared he might actually drop dead from rage on the spot, and hurriedly offered a few placating words.

"Father, Eldest Imperial Brother had the Imperial Heir on his mind. That is why he took a wrong step..."

It would have been better had Shen Yuyao kept silent. The moment she opened her mouth, Shen Chong's anger flared even hotter. But his wrath was not aimed at Shen Yuyao; it was directed at Shen Zhuocong.

"You even made use of Yuyang. Crown Prince, is this how you conduct yourself as an elder brother!"

Perhaps he had raged so hard that his mind went blank, and he actually grew a shade calmer instead.

Shen Chong said no more. In the vast room, nothing remained but the furious gasps he could not suppress, thickening the air all the more.

Looking down at the Crown Prince kneeling on the floor, Shen Chong drew a deep breath, intending to send Shen Yuyao away first.

He had heard that Shen Yuyao's carriage had been startled at the palace gate, that there had been quite a commotion, and that she had been frightened into tears. Thinking of this, Shen Chong felt a measure of tenderness for his daughter. Turning his head, he asked the eunuch Yu Liu beside him, "Has Noble Consort Qu arrived?"

Shen Yuyao, who had been brought in and given a seat, served hot tea, and had an Imperial Physician summoned for her, had not expected Shen Chong to be so considerate. He had even called Qu Yanyue over for her!

By contrast, Shen Chong's attitude toward the Crown Prince was as ruthless as an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

Shen Yuyao gained a further understanding of how doted upon the Original Owner was, and at the same time came to see the Crown Prince's present situation with far greater clarity.

She had thought the Crown Prince was merely confined to quarters, that the Emperor still held some regard for the bond of blood. But seeing Shen Chong, right in front of her, unceremoniously slap Shen Zhuocong across the face, she knew his fury ran deep, far beyond the light handling he showed on the surface.

The blow was truly vicious; it stunned Shen Zhuocong outright, and half his face swelled up high. Now he would surely have to stay obediently in the Eastern Palace for ten days to half a month. With a face like that, how was he to meet anyone?

The Emperor had ceased to spare the Crown Prince the least shred of face; he had not even ordered the attendants to withdraw before striking him.

Shen Yuyao clicked her tongue inwardly and shook her head. She had said as much: how could an Emperor in the prime of his years still overflow with fatherly love and boundless benevolence toward a son who had been Crown Prince for over twenty years?

Yu Liu was plump and fair, and ordinarily wore a kindly smile that made people feel festive at the sight of him. But today not a trace of a smile remained on his face; in Shen Chong's presence he hunched his neck, wishing he could bury himself in the ground.

At the Emperor's question, he dared not, as usual, offer a couple of pretty words. Instead he answered cautiously, "Replying to Your Majesty, this slave has already sent that boy Yang Zheng to Yongkang Hall. He will surely return within a quarter hour."

"Mm." Qu Yanyue was a Noble Consort, and a Noble Consort's outings always required proper adornment; a quarter hour was already quick, and Shen Chong did not find it surprising.

It was just that after Yu Liu finished speaking, he still looked at him with an air of wanting to speak but holding back. Shen Chong asked in a low voice, "Out with it!"

The kneeling Crown Prince and the standing Yu Liu were startled at once by Shen Chong's harsh voice. Yu Liu hastily said, "Yes! This old slave knows his crime. I beg Your Majesty to calm his anger!"

"This old slave saw the Head Steward Xia of Fengyi Palace outside the door."

Fengyi Palace! The mere mention of those words made Shen Chong's forehead throb. He pressed his fingers to his forehead, where deep vertical lines, like grooves carved by fate, had settled in. "It seems everyone will soon be assembled."

As he spoke, out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimmer nearby. Looking closer, he saw it was the light reflecting off the pearls and jade in Shen Yuyao's hair. In the warm yellow lamplight his daughter looked as delicate as carved powder and jade, and the eyes that gazed at him held none of the fear or ingratiation so common in the world.

Only pure curiosity, and a clarity so limpid he could see to the bottom of it, as though all the filth this world's lust for power had bred had nothing to do with her.

Shen Chong loved his seventh daughter precisely because she had the purest eyes in this world, a guileless freedom that did not belong to this nest of wealth and privilege, glossy on the surface and rotten within.

How could Shen Yuyao know that a single Spectating Drama gaze of hers could send so many thoughts flashing through Shen Chong's mind?

If she had known what it was about the Original Owner that Shen Chong loved, she would surely have sighed that the Emperor and the Crown Prince were truly father and son, both so full of themselves.

The Original Owner had been born in the Imperial City, spoiled into a touch of arrogance, like a flower in a greenhouse: however gorgeously it bloomed, it was only the shape others wanted, not the shape she was born to be.

A flower forced to suppress its nature and bloom twisted over a lifetime, however beautiful, could never hide the rot bred into its bones. Had Shen Yuyao not transmigrated into her, the Original Owner might have, like the Crown Prince, thrown herself recklessly into the "flames of love," burning everyone down to ash.

"Yuyang, if you feel unwell, you may go rest in the Side Hall for a while."

As he spoke, Shen Chong walked over to Shen Yuyao, reached out to brush her hair lightly, and bent down to ask, "Were you badly frightened today? Hurry to the Side Hall and rest properly. Wait for your Mother Consort to come and take you back to Yongkang Hall." Shen Yuyao knew this meant he was clearing the room.

She had watched only one round of the fight and had not yet had her fill, and now she was to be driven out? Then all her acting tonight would have been for nothing.

Shen Yuyao pouted and looked with utter trust at the Crown Prince kneeling ramrod-straight not far away. "Yuyang is not afraid. Eldest Imperial Brother is here. Eldest Imperial Brother said he would not let Yuyang be hurt!"

The moment she said this, it confirmed that tonight's affair had been long planned by the Crown Prince. The fury Shen Chong had just suppressed flared up again with a whoosh. He rose, strode two steps in anger to behind the Crown Prince, and kicked at his arm.

Shen Zhuocong had practiced Martial Arts since childhood and had a strong body; this kick certainly would not easily knock him down. But he went with the momentum and fell.

It was hard to say whether the pain was in his body or in his heart.

Shen Zhuocong propped himself up on his arms and looked at his Father through his loosened hair. The man who in memory had been as peerlessly proud as a lion now had white hairs in the lamplight, his back already slightly curved, no longer the upright figure he had been.

He was no longer the unmatched sovereign of memory. He had grown old.

Good heavens! That kick was vicious. The Crown Prince, like a little flower battered by frost and rain, went down with a plop.

"Disobeying your father's command! Unfit to be a son! Entrapping your sisters! Unfit to be an elder brother! Crown Prince, oh Crown Prince, you have truly disappointed Us! Pass the order down: two hundred Imperial Guards are to surround the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace. No one in the Eastern Palace may leave without Our handwritten decree!"

"Your Majesty, you must not!"

The moment Shen Chong finished speaking, a shout came from the doorway, and the eunuch's belated announcement from outside reached the ears of those within.

"The Empress has arrived!"

Seeing Zheng Wanwan, Shen Yuyao noticed that Shen Zhuocong seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, his taut shoulders relaxing slightly.

Shen Yuyao had thought the Crown Prince possessed some great source of confidence; so his confidence came from the Empress. Shen Yuyao lamented inwardly. She had thought she might see the Imperial House's father and son quarrel like any ordinary father and son, shouting and throwing punches.

In the end the Crown Prince was more forbearing than she had imagined; there was no further conflict at all, only the Emperor venting furiously on one side.

Now that the Empress had come, who knew whether there would be further conflict.

Shen Yuyao was truly anxious; she desperately wanted to see how things would unfold. But Zheng Wanwan had not come to quarrel with the Emperor.

Even though she was the Empress, she was not so foolhardy as to square off against Shen Chong head-on. At this moment she looked haggard, her face unpowdered and bare, which made her seem all the more sickly and frail.

She had been ill to begin with. Yesterday she had been so angry that her head ached all day, and during the day today, having learned of the Crown Prince's plan, she had been even more preoccupied, unable to sit or stand at ease. Now that the Crown Prince's affair had burst into the open, she actually felt the relief of a great stone finally striking the ground; it was only that the present situation was truly difficult to handle.

Zheng Wanwan looked at Shen Yuyao, sitting innocently to one side with a helpless air, and felt somewhat guilty. She had already heard that in order to help the Crown Prince, Shen Yuyao's horse had unexpectedly shied at the palace gate, that she had fallen from the carriage, and that she had cried out ceaselessly from the pain on the spot.

The child was truly honest and sincere. The Crown Prince had only asked her to help stir up a little trouble to draw the attention of the Imperial Guard; he had not told her to gamble with her own life.

How could Shen Yuyao know that the truth of the matter, in the course of being passed from mouth to mouth, had gradually been distorted beyond recognition?

Qu Yanyue, who had been leisurely dressing at Yongkang Hall and waiting to go fetch her capable, good daughter in a little while, soon saw a trusted confidante come running in a panic from outside to tell her that the Seventh Princess had fallen from her carriage and was insensible, that the Emperor had summoned an Imperial Physician to keep watch over her, and that she was plainly about to die.

When Qu Yanyue heard this news, cold sweat broke out on her. She had only this one daughter; if the girl truly perished because of the Crown Prince and his lot, her heart would break. At once she stopped dressing leisurely, threw on a simple outer robe, and headed out.

She left the slow palanquin behind her and hurried toward Ziwei Palace at nearly a run.

As she walked, she scolded Feihong, the confidante at her side who had brought her the truth. "How do you do your inquiries? The Seventh Princess was so badly injured, and you still said she was in no great danger?"

Feihong was dumbstruck; she began to doubt her own ears. "But Your Highness, this news came from Meixiang, who serves the Seventh Princess. There should be no mistake."

Hearing this, Qu Yanyue did not know what to say either; she could only make for Ziwei Palace as fast as she could. Tears came out on the way. If her precious daughter were lost in such a farce, she would truly die of rage.

When Qu Yanyue arrived, she went straight to the main hall, but just as she reached the doorway she was stopped by Yu Liu, who was keeping watch outside.

"Noble Consort, His Majesty and the Empress and the Crown Prince are inside. It truly is not suitable for you to go in. The Seventh Princess has already gone to the East Side Hall; why not go to the Side Hall and see the Princess?"

Qu Yanyue had good ears and faintly heard Shen Chong's furious roars, along with the Crown Prince's rebuttals and the Empress's voice trying to break up the quarrel.

There was surely quite a spectacle inside, but unfortunately she could not watch it.

Her daughter was more important. Qu Yanyue turned her steps toward the East Side Hall.

But when she reached the doors, she saw the palace maids all outside, the hall doors tightly shut.

"Why are you all keeping watch outside? Is no one left to attend the Princess?" Qu Yanyue's brows shot up, about to fly into a rage.

Meixiang, who had likewise been driven out, hesitated to speak. She stepped sideways to clear the way and gently pushed open one of the hall doors.

Through the gap in the door, Qu Yanyue at once saw her "insensible" daughter, eagerly pressed against the wall, listening to the goings-on with a strange posture.

"..."

Never in her life had Qu Yanyue opened and shut a door so fast.

"Wait outside, all of you." Qu Yanyue gave the order uneasily, then turned and met Shen Yuyao's embarrassed smile.

Shen Yuyao truly had not expected Qu Yanyue to come so soon.

Previous Table of Contents Next