The Empress's White Fox - Chapter 3

Another year passed.

On my fifth birthday, the emperor took the Noble Consort and me out of the palace to enjoy a lake excursion and some tea.

As we passed a tea plantation on a hillside, a breeze lifted a tea picker’s veil, revealing a breathtaking face.

Even the emperor, who had seen countless beautiful women, stared for a moment.

One of his consorts covered her mouth and laughed. “Everyone calls the Noble Consort the most beautiful woman in the world. It seems there is always someone more beautiful after all.”

Song Wanrou held me in her arms, her expression calm as she heard this.

But her fingers tightened without her noticing, pinching me hard enough to hurt.

The emperor smiled at me. “Tell me, Zhaoyang. Who is prettier, that girl or your mother?”

I gave a disdainful snort. My voice was childish, but arrogant. “A lowly servant? How dare she compare herself to my mother?”

Song Wanrou’s expression changed at once. “The princess is still little. Who knows where she picked up such words?”

The emperor’s smile froze. “Zhaoyang has grown up at your side. Who else could she have learned them from?”

Of course I had learned them from Song Wanrou.

For all her outward gentleness and virtue, she was selfish and vicious in private.

Her personal maid dropped to her knees behind her. “Perhaps the princess overheard me scolding a junior maid the other day.”

With so many people present, the emperor ultimately allowed Song Wanrou a way to save face.

He glanced at the kneeling maid. “Take her away for punishment.”

Then he lifted me straight from Song Wanrou’s arms and took me to a pavilion.

The owner of the tea estate knew how to read a situation. Recognizing his visitors as people of exalted rank, he had his prettiest tea picker prepare their tea.

After a eunuch tested it for poison, she brought the emperor a bowl of clear tea.

He took a single sip and froze. There was an urgency in his voice as he asked, “What is your name?”

The tea picker lowered her head. “Wen Lian, Your Majesty.”

Wen Lian had been the name of Wen Fu’s late younger sister. With a new face, she naturally needed a new name.

The emperor was not a man enslaved by beauty, but he would certainly take Wen Fu back to the palace.

For one reason only: her tea tasted exactly like the empress’s.

It was a taste he had spent two full years searching for, longing for it day and night.

When Song Wanrou returned to her rooms, she smashed a vase and flew into a towering rage.

“Some country wench dares to seduce His Majesty!”

Her closest confidante, Mistress Lanshuang, had already made inquiries while Wen Fu was preparing the emperor’s tea.

Kneeling on the floor, she answered without a change of expression.

“Her name is Wen Lian. They say she came from a brothel. After her freedom was bought, she became a tea picker on the estate.”

Song Wanrou’s twisted brows softened instantly. She smiled.

“And here I was wondering who she might be… A brothel woman? How could His Majesty possibly want her?”

She did not consider Wen Fu a threat at all.

After all, every woman in the palace was the daughter of a distinguished family.

What she failed to understand was that the imperial harem had never lacked decorous, restrained women.

…

As children, Wen Fu and her younger sister had been sold to a brothel by their parents.

Wen Fu was plain, but clever and quick-witted. The brothel’s leading courtesan kept her as a personal maid.

During those years, the courtesan taught her many ways to please a man.

She did not want to spend her whole life there. All she wanted was to save enough silver to buy her sister’s freedom before the girl began receiving clients.

Then she met Xie Zhiyin, who attended school disguised as a boy and had been tricked by her classmates into visiting the brothel after lessons.

Xie Zhiyin was not yet empress then.

Wen Fu threatened to expose her as a girl unless she bought her sister’s freedom.

Xie Zhiyin bought not only Wen Lian’s freedom, but Wen Fu’s as well.

Later, Wen Fu chose to remain at her side, becoming her most loyal maid.

…

That night, the emperor kept only Wen Fu in his room.

Even when Song Wanrou carried me over to see him, she was stopped outside.

Watching the candlelight flicker within, she slapped the eunuch guarding the door.

“What do you servants think you’re doing? How could you let a brothel woman into His Majesty’s room?”

“Drag that filthy creature out and beat her to death!”

She had always been meek and obedient before the emperor. This was the first time she had behaved so imperiously.

To keep Wen Fu from winning his favor, she was even willing to damage his dignity.

Unfortunately for her, none of it changed the mind of the man inside.

“Your Grace would do well to keep her voice down.” The eunuch she had slapped lowered his head and spoke quietly. “His Majesty knows the tea picker’s history. Sold to a brothel as a child, she was freed at fourteen. She is a poor, virtuous woman whose innocence remains intact.”

Song Wanrou gave an incredulous laugh. “A brothel woman… innocent?”

“Whether she is innocent is for His Majesty to decide,” the eunuch reminded her softly. “If Your Grace remains here, it will be more than a servant’s face you are slapping.”

In the two years since the empress’s death, Song Wanrou had been the most exalted woman in the palace.

Over time, she had grown used to being flattered wherever she went.

This was the first humiliation she had suffered in those two years.

She stood there, her eyes reddening with fury.

But she could only endure it.

The man in that room was the sole support she would ever have.

She shook off my hand and left.

Lanshuang picked me up and hurried after her.

“His Majesty is merely enjoying something new. How could a woman like that ever enter the palace?” Leaning close to Song Wanrou’s ear, she murmured, “Once he tires of her, we can find a chance to dispose of the little bitch.”

Everyone said no one understood Noble Consort Song’s wishes better than Lanshuang.

Sure enough, her words soothed much of Song Wanrou’s anger.

But this time, Lanshuang was wrong. The emperor did bring Wen Fu back to the palace.

Song Wanrou had nowhere to vent the anger that had built up over days.

I could smell more blood on Lanshuang than before.

Everyone called Noble Consort Song exceptionally gentle with her servants. No one had ever seen her punish them physically.

That was because she inflicted her vicious punishments where no one could see.

The servants in her palace were not obedient because they were so well trained. They were terrified of her.