Jade Upon a Parting Heart - Chapter 3

I was made a noble consort.

The position of empress remained vacant. I guessed Xuan Jue meant to use it to win over some powerful minister.

Sure enough, three days after I entered the palace, a young girl came stomping into my residence. She glared at me with enormous eyes.

“So you’re Xie Chongsi, the woman who stole my place? Shameless. Even if His Majesty spared you for the sake of your former marriage, someone like you ought to die to atone for her crimes. Why are you still alive?”

I stared at her. “…What?”

Then realization struck, and I sneered inwardly.

Xuan Jue, you truly never waste anything. You spared my life just to prop me up as a target for the court.

I said nothing. Setting aside the wooden zither in my lap, I examined the girl slowly from head to toe until she began to squirm. Only then did I laugh.

“General Tian’s daughter?”

“How did you know?”

“There are few noble young ladies in the capital I don’t recognize. You’ve lived in the southern frontier for years, haven’t you?” Of the families that might have worked with Xuan Jue from within and without, only a handful fit. It was not difficult to guess.

I rose and snuffed out the incense burning beside the zither. “Did you enter the palace with your father? Don’t wander. Causing disturbances is forbidden here. Taiji Hall is that way. Lanling, take her there.”

Miss Tian stamped her foot. “You—just you wait!”

I was genuinely baffled. “Wait for what? I haven’t murdered your brothers, killed your maids, wiped out everyone around you, locked you in a gilded cage, or seduced you with a smiling face. Little girl, don’t lose your head and forget your own name just because Xuan Jue smiled at you. Go home. The palace is no place for you. Besides—”

I smiled. “You say I stole your place? With that face, I doubt you could ever sit where I do.”

An ill-bred little brat like her dared provoke me?

If nothing else, in beauty alone I had once been called the finest in the capital. How many poets had compared me to the peony?

Tears sprang instantly to Miss Tian’s eyes, and she fled sobbing. The palace maids Xuan Jue had planted around me all held their breath. Perhaps my courtesy over the past few days had convinced them I was easy to live with.

“Next time another blind little fool like that comes,” I said, “keep her outside. I don’t want her filthy nonsense in my ears.”

They murmured their assent.

The servants’ treatment of me reflected Xuan Jue’s attitude.

At least for now, it seemed he had no intention of doing anything to me.