The Vicious Woman and the White Moonlight are both me - Chapter 24

Song Zhaoyan felt that this banquet was even more exhausting than the previous Qixi Festival. Her thoughts kept circling back to the Emperor’s strange attitude toward her earlier and to the sudden words the Crown Prince, Pei Chenghao, had spoken—what exactly had he meant by them?

She was at odds with the Empress, which meant she was an enemy of the Crown Prince. How could he possibly speak up for Song Zhaoyan, urging her to choose one of the princes as her husband?

So, what kind of scheme was being calculated behind the scenes this time, aimed at her?

For the moment, Song Zhaoyan couldn’t make sense of it. She could only steady herself and resolve to respond as things unfolded.

Yet, unexpectedly, for the rest of the banquet, the Crown Prince remained quiet and well-behaved, showing no sign of targeting her at all. Instead, it made Song Zhaoyan wonder if she had been overthinking everything.

While the banquet hall was filled with joy and celebration, Fengyi Palace was far more desolate by comparison.

The Empress, confined to her quarters, had shed her luxurious robes and wore only simple, plain clothing and modest hair ornaments. At this moment, she held a string of prayer beads in her hand, kneeling devoutly before the small Buddha hall, looking every bit like a recluse who had spent years performing good deeds and worshipping the Buddha.

Although the Empress was under house arrest, that did not mean she was cut off from all news.

Qiu Sui knelt at the Empress’s side, quietly reporting on the happenings outside, especially the events of Song Zhaoyan’s coming-of-age ceremony.

“Your Majesty allowed the Crown Prince to attend the banquet. Were you not afraid that Princess Zhaohua would deliberately target His Highness in front of His Majesty? Especially with His Majesty being so…”

Unable to tell right from wrong!

Even though there were only the Empress and Qiu Sui in the hall at this moment, Qiu Sui did not voice the rest of her thought. If she truly said it aloud, it would amount to a grave offense of disrespect.

The Empress, eyes closed, showed no particular reaction. The prayer beads in her hand continued to turn without pause.

“The Crown Prince wouldn’t be so inconsiderate and him going today wasn’t to trouble Song Zhaoyan,” she said calmly. “On the contrary, it was to fulfill His Majesty’s wishes.”

Qiu Sui did not immediately grasp the meaning behind the Empress’s words. But even as a trusted confidante, she would not foolishly press her mistress for an explanation.

However, the Empress seemed to be in a good mood and continued of her own accord.

“Song Zhaoyan truly resembles her mother. Now she’s reached an age where she can be married,” the Empress said. “With His Majesty showing her such ‘affection,’ can he really bear to let her be married off to someone else again?”

There was a faint note of mockery in her voice, and she deliberately stressed the word “affection.” It was clear that as Empress—His Majesty’s pillow companion of many years—she knew perfectly well the truth behind Song Zhaoyan’s so-called favor.

As she spoke, she slowly opened her eyes, which were filled with smug calculation.

Qiu Sui, the Empress’s dowry maid, naturally knew the entanglements between Song Zhaoyan’s mother and His Majesty. She quickly caught the implication hidden within the Empress’s words.

Qiusui was visibly shaken. “Your Majesty… what you mean is—could it be that His Majesty intends to… to…”

Fearing that the walls might have ears, she lowered her voice even further. “To take her into the harem as a consort?”

After Qiu Sui finished speaking, the smile on the Empress’s face only grew wider. “Even if His Majesty has no such intention now, this palace will make sure he does! The dead are gone, after all. What one never obtained is what lingers in the heart forever. Only by truly possessing it—by filling that hollow in his heart, by personally experiencing that beauty in real, everyday companionship, until it’s worn down by quarrels and conflicts—only then can one truly let go. Or even come to despise it!”

The woman he once loved accused him of having no sense of responsibility, turned her love into disgust, and married another man.

Now this daughter—whom he has ‘cherished’ for so many years, who bears such a striking resemblance to his beloved—will one day marry someone else as well. Could he truly feel nothing? Would he not want to claim her for himself, to reclaim the wounded pride of the past?

The Empress gave a cold laugh. The smile on her face grew ever wider, as though the scheme in her heart had already succeeded.

But in response to the Empress’s words, Qiu Sui was clearly more worried than relieved. “But Your Majesty, setting aside whether the court and the realm would be thrown into uproar by such a matter—aren’t you afraid that Princess Zhaohua would become the sole favorite of the harem? If she were to bear a son or daughter, then your position, and the Crown Prince’s, would no longer be secure!”

At Qiu Sui’s concern, the Empress showed not the slightest trace of worry.

She raised her hand, and Qiu Sui hurried to support the Empress as she rose. Then the Empress spoke unhurriedly, “What you’re describing would only happen if Song Zhaoyan had any sense to begin with. But look at how she’s conducted herself all these years—does she seem like someone with a brain? If His Majesty truly forces her into marriage, and Song Zhaoyan becomes Pei Chengyun’s concubine-mother, she will surely give birth to hatred! With her fearless temperament, she’d probably even harbor thoughts of killing His Majesty. I have no doubt she would dare to act! Even if she endures it for the sake of power, the end of that endurance will inevitably be His Majesty’s death!”

Once His Majesty passes away, with the Eastern Palace already established, the Crown Prince’s succession would be entirely legitimate!

Listening to the Empress speak so bluntly of killing His Majesty, Qiu Sui felt her heart pounding wildly. Even as a seasoned palace attendant who had seen much, the words still left her shaken.

After all, the Empress and His Majesty had been husband and wife for many years. Did the Empress truly have no concern at all for His Majesty’s safety?

Then again, on second thought, as husband and wife for so long, it was His Majesty who had wronged the Empress first. She could hardly be blamed for responding in kind.

“But Your Majesty, if His Majesty truly were to pass away—could the Crown Prince really ascend the throne smoothly?”

Setting aside the Crown Prince’s well-known health issues, he had only a single daughter. Wouldn’t the other princes all want to fight for the throne?

Even if they didn’t contend openly, in secret they could sit back and watch the tigers fight. In the future, if the Crown Prince were left without an heir and had to choose a successor from the clan, wouldn’t all of today’s schemes simply be sewing a wedding dress for someone else?

Qiu Sui’s worries were not without reason—every question struck straight at the heart of the matter.

After helping the Empress sit back down, Qiu Sui set about preparing tea for her.

And the Empress did not hide anything from Qiu Sui.

“Who says the Crown Prince has no heir? The Crown Princess is already pregnant. She’ll soon reach three months—it’s time to announce it to the outside world.”

The moment those words fell, Qiu Sui was so shocked that her hand jerked. The teacup in her grasp slipped free and shattered on the floor.

The Crown Princess is pregnant? With the Crown Prince in his current condition, how could the Crown Princess possibly be with child? Unless she had been unfaithful.

But if that were the case, how could the Empress speak of the Crown Princess’s pregnancy so calmly? She would have long since poisoned the Crown Princess in secret, then announced to the world that she had died suddenly of illness.

Though Qiu Sui hadn’t said anything overtly disrespectful, her reaction itself already constituted a show of disrespect.

Under the Empress’s cold gaze, Qiu Sui was so frightened that she immediately dropped to her knees to beg forgiveness.

“Your Majesty, please forgive me. This servant was careless for a moment. I beg for your mercy!”

The Empress remained silent for a long while, frightening Qiu Sui into raising her hand and slapping her own face without holding back.

Only after seven or eight slaps did the Empress finally speak, her tone indifferent. “Enough. This matter isn’t your fault. I imagine anyone who heard such news would react the same way you did.”

Seeing that the Empress did not seem inclined to pursue the matter, Qiu Sui finally let out a breath of relief—yet she still dared not rise from her knees.

“Stop kneeling. Get up,” the Empress said. “You’ve followed this palace for many years. You are my trusted confidante, and I trust you. That’s why it does no harm for you to know these matters.”

Only then did Qiu Sui dare to rise. As she moved, she realized that the clothes on her back were completely soaked through with sweat.

After cleaning up the shattered teacup, Qiu Sui steadied herself, restored her composure, and poured tea for the Empress once more.

“Once the news of the Crown Princess’s pregnancy is announced, His Majesty will presumably lift Your Majesty’s confinement.”

The Empress’s expression remained calm. “Perhaps. But for now, what matters more is the Crown Princess’s pregnancy. When the time comes, I’ll need you to help me with something.”

Qiu Sui looked at the Empress in confusion, not understanding.

“The Second Prince has a concubine who is pregnant. It’s already been over three months, and the physician who examined her pulse has confirmed it’s a male fetus. It isn’t the Second Prince’s first child and that concubine has no distinguished background, so the child hasn’t drawn much attention.”

Qiusui had been in the palace for many years. Some things did not need to be spelled out too clearly—she understood at once.

It seemed that the Crown Princess’s pregnancy was false. What the Empress and the Crown Prince truly intended was to join forces and seize the unborn child of the Second Prince’s concubine.

When that time came, the Crown Prince would have an heir. With the Empress’s maternal clan standing guard behind him, securing his current position would be no difficult matter at all.

During this period, they would continue to fan His Majesty’s desire to take Song Zhaoyan into the harem. If the plan went smoothly, once hatred took root in Song Zhaoyan’s heart and she plotted to assassinate His Majesty…

Whether His Majesty was killed by Song Zhaoyan or not, in the end that crime could only be laid at her feet!

As for the other princes stirring restlessly, they would first have to see whether they even had the capability to act.

And for this plan to proceed without a hitch, there were still quite a few obstacles ahead.

The first was that someone would inevitably question the child in the Crown Princess’s womb—just as Qiu Sui had instinctively done earlier.

But no one would dare point at the Crown Prince’s nose and say that he was impotent, much less speak such blunt truths in front of His Majesty.

So, in the end, the accusation they would try to pin on her could only be that the Crown Princess had been unfaithful.

Yet that charge could not simply be slapped on at will. Without evidence, casually slandering the Crown Princess would be a capital offense!

If the Empress managed to seize such an accusation, it would naturally be used as an opportunity to eliminate her opponents.

Having grasped the Empress’s true intent, Qiu Sui would, of course, devote herself fully to planning on her behalf.

And on the other side, at Song Zhaoyan’s coming-of-age banquet, she had no idea that from the moment the golden hairpin was placed upon her head, she had already fallen into the calculations of the Empress and the Crown Prince.

___________

After the coming-of-age banquet ended, life returned to its former calm.

Song Zhaoyan no longer went to the Wenxue Hall. She didn’t stop Pei Shen from going, but once he returned to Chaoyang Palace each day, she would deliberately take up his time, insisting that he come and tutor her and she stubbornly refused to go over what he had learned that day in the Wenxue Hall, insisting instead that he teach from books she herself had chosen for him.

Fortunately, Pei Shen hadn’t slacked off at all. He had already thoroughly digested those texts and explaining them came easily to him.

Out of sheer boredom, Song Zhaoyan would occasionally bring up the Fifth Prince, Pei Chengyun, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time, deliberately putting on a show of longing and lovesickness for him.

Xuezhi, unaware of the real situation, naturally tried to comfort her.

“Your Highness, don’t be anxious. Although His Majesty ordered the Fifth Prince to be confined for three months, His Majesty’s anger has mostly subsided by now and the autumn hunt is coming up soon. Perhaps His Majesty will lift the Fifth Prince’s confinement ahead of time. When that happens, won’t Your Highness be able to see him?”

Hearing Xuezhi’s words, Song Zhaoyan was instantly filled with joy. If there was an autumn hunt, that meant she could leave the palace.

But almost immediately, another problem followed.

She would certainly have to take Pei Shen with her. Yet thinking of how Pei Shen had been treated in the past, she feared his riding and archery skills might not be fit for public display.

Although she had already used her own methods to improve Pei Shen’s literary studies, she couldn’t neglect the martial side either.

The six arts of a gentleman—whatever the other princes possessed, Pei Shen had to possess as well!

At that thought, Song Zhaoyan straightened up as if she’d been injected with sudden energy.

“That’s right. The autumn hunt is just around the corner. Even if Father Emperor doesn’t pardon Fifth Brother, I’ll go and plead for him myself. When the time comes, out on the hunting grounds, I’ll let Fifth Brother see how valiant and dashing I am!”

Xuezhi stared at her in shock. “Your Highness… what do you mean by that?”

“What else could I mean?” Song Zhaoyan said decisively. “I’m going to learn riding and archery! Hurry and invite an instructor to Chaoyang Palace!”