The Empress's White Fox - Chapter 2

After I woke, I could neither speak nor walk.

The imperial physicians said the fever had damaged my mind. I would probably never be as bright and quick-witted as before.

Noble Consort Song merely told my wet nurse to take me away, where I would not offend the emperor’s eyes.

I suddenly understood: even her own daughter was only a tool to win his favor.

A year later, I had learned to walk like a human, and to speak.

Only then did my wet nurse carry me to see the emperor and Noble Consort Song.

The emperor sat me on his lap and pinched my cheek, smiling. “Zhaoyang grows lovelier every day.”

But an instant later, his eyes changed.

He had noticed the white fox-fur cloak around me. Unmistakable pain flickered in his gaze.

Then he put me down and hurried away.

After bidding him farewell, Song Wanrou looked at my cloak and immediately understood.

“Burn it.” She laughed coldly. “That woman has been dead a year, and His Majesty still hasn’t forgotten her.”

Her maid Lanshuang stepped forward to comb her black hair.

“His Majesty does love Your Grace.”

“Does he? Then why does he still refuse to make me empress?”

Lanshuang dared not answer. Song Wanrou knew the reason well enough.

She turned to me, hatred staining those beautiful almond-shaped eyes.

“If giving birth to Zhaoyang hadn’t damaged my health, I would have borne a prince and become empress long ago.”

She thought I brought bad luck and never spent time alone with me.

I could find no chance to kill her.

Until one day, in the imperial gardens, I caught Wen Fu’s scent beneath a heavy reek of blood.

I stood still, looking at the stooped woman whose face had been utterly disfigured. She was doing hard labor, building a pavilion.

My wet nurse ran over and picked me up. “Princess, how did you get here? The construction isn’t finished. What if you were hurt?”

At the sound of her voice, Wen Fu looked up at me.

For that one glance, a eunuch gave her several more lashes.

The smell of blood grew stronger.

No one here seemed to know that she was Mistress Wen Fu, the empress’s most trusted attendant.

That night, I slipped out again.

I found Wen Fu in the same place.

She was still hauling sand and earth beside the pavilion. Her once-soft hands were rough beyond recognition.

She saw me too.

While the eunuch watching her dozed, she slowly approached.

She crouched before me. Her voice was dry and hoarse. “You’re Princess Zhaoyang? If you died, would your mother grieve?”

“No,” I answered coldly in my childish voice. “She only wants a prince so she can become empress.”

Wen Fu held a shard of porcelain she had hidden earlier.

At my words, her grip tightened instinctively. It cut her palm, and blood trickled down her hand.

I took a chicken leg wrapped in oiled paper from inside my clothes and held it out.

“You must be hungry.”

She stared at me, stunned.

When I spoke again, I sounded nothing like a child.

“I don’t like crushed chicken bones. I only like the legs.”

Wen Fu’s lashes trembled. Her eyes slowly reddened.

I paused, then continued. “So the empress said every chicken leg in Chunhua Palace belonged to me.”

“Are you…” Her voice choked with disbelief. “Little Nine? The empress’s fox?”

I rested my hand on the back of hers. A moment later, every scar on her hand had vanished.

She snatched it back and looked at me in astonishment.

“Are you… a demon?”

“Perhaps.”

White foxes could alter people’s looks. Once, wanting to repay the empress, I had made her even more beautiful than Song Wanrou was now.

She had only stroked my head and said softly, “If anyone else in the palace learns you can do this, they will never let you live.”

“I want you to live a good, long life, Little Nine.”

“I am the empress. I have no need to serve a man with my beauty.”

As she finished, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes slowly returned.

I had rubbed my head against her palm.

There were still so many chicken legs I wanted to eat. I had no wish to die.

“Find a chance to leave the palace,” I told Wen Fu. “One day, I’ll kill Song Wanrou. I just need to grow a little bigger, and a little stronger.”

Wen Fu smiled. “Do you think killing her would settle the score? Little Nine, you still don’t understand human hatred.”

“Death is a release. Some people deserve a life worse than death.”

Following her gaze, I looked at the bloodstained shard on the ground and sighed.

“That’s why I never wanted to become human. Being human is exhausting.”