Chapter 25.1

Her hand brushed against his palm, and what she touched was something sticky and wet.

Su Jiao hurriedly lowered her head to look and saw that his fair, pale hand was still gripping a small shard, the fragment having cut his palm until it ran with blood.

“What happened?”

She was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts, her tone turning tense.

Xie Yan pulled her toward the room.

“I accidentally broke a teacup.”

The shard had gone in deep. Su Jiao couldn’t imagine what kind of “accident” could cut this badly.

“Why didn’t you pull it out? Do you not want this hand anymore?”

Xie Yan looked steadily at her.

“Would you watch me lose my hand?”

What did that have to do with her?

Su Jiao shook her head.

Xie Yan’s lips curved into a smile as he pulled her further inside.

“Well, there you have it.”

Once inside, Su Jiao had someone bring a basin of clean water so she could clean and medicate the wound. Even though she handled it as gently as she possibly could, she was still startled by the blurred mess of blood and torn flesh.

But the man before her didn’t move at all, letting her do as she pleased with him.

“If I weren’t here, or if I really just watched and did nothing, how long would you have let this shard sit there?”

Her tone carried a hint of irritation.

Ever since she had been reborn, in this period of less than half a month, not a single day had passed without medicine being needed in their Yongning Hall.

“Then let it be lost.”

The careless words made her temple twitch even harder.

Xie Yan actually used force and tried to pull his hand back.

Su Jiao quickly grabbed hold of him.

“Fine! I was joking.”

Xie Yan smiled.

“So was I.”

He watched the curve of her neck as she bent down to apply the medicine, her snow-white nape hidden within her robes, still bearing the faint, half-hidden bruises he had left the day before yesterday.

For a moment, something stirred faintly at the tip of his heart.

Xie Yan wondered—had he really used that much force?

Or was she simply that delicate.

He frowned and looked again and again, unable to resist reaching out his hand—

“Your Highness, His Majesty has summoned you.”

A voice outside the door rang out at the worst possible moment.

Su Jiao finished bandaging him and pushed him out, finally gaining some peace.

But before Xie Yan had been gone for long, an unfamiliar elderly attendant came to the door.

“By custom, the Prince’s Consort should pay respects and offer tea to Her Majesty the Empress after the wedding to the Third Prince. Though it’s been delayed a few days, it ought to be observed today. Prince’s Consort, please come with me.”

Su Jiao had assumed that Xie Yan being called away was also related to this matter, but it was only once she entered Fengyi Palace that she realized she alone had come.

On the dais, the Empress glanced down at her with an air of arrogant superiority. As the doors shut behind her, Su Jiao’s heart sank.

It seemed today was to be a trap.

“Prince’s Consort, please.”

The attendant set out a cushion before her.

“Since this is a tea ceremony, naturally His Highness should be present together with this humble daughter-in-law. His Highness was just called away by Father Emperor—I must trouble Mother Empress to wait a moment.”

The Empress did not even lift her eyes; the attendant spoke respectfully.

“The Third Prince has not yet arrived—perhaps he is discussing state affairs with His Majesty. As the Prince’s Consort is a daughter-in-law, surely you would not make Her Majesty the Empress wait. That would not be in keeping with the filial piety our Great Zhao upholds.”

The word “mother-in-law” loomed as large as the heavens. Su Jiao’s forehead throbbed, but she had no choice but to take the tea and kneel down.

“This humble one greets Mother Empress.”

After handing over the tea, the attendant withdrew. On the dais, the Empress had her eyes closed, seemingly asleep.

Su Jiao patiently called out again.

“Ten thousand blessings to Mother Empress.”

The Empress still didn’t move.

“Since Mother Empress is sleepy, there’s no use in my offering tea here.”

In her previous life, she had clashed with this mother-in-law for years and suffered no small amount of torment at her hands. One look at this scene and Su Jiao knew it was deliberate.

She immediately set down the teacup and stood up.

The attendant rushed to stop her, her tone now grave.

“Her Majesty the Empress is merely resting briefly. As a junior, can the Prince’s Consort not even wait this little while?”

Su Jiao gave a slight curtsy and walked toward the door.

“If Her Majesty is merely resting, I have no objection to waiting. But if she is truly tired, must I wait an entire day?”

“As a daughter-in-law, you ought to serve your mother-in-law with reverence and filial obedience. Even if Her Majesty truly made the Prince’s Consort wait a full day, you would have to bear it.”

Just as she was about to walk out the door, the attendant’s tone grew sharper.

“Prince’s Consort, think carefully. If you walk out now, Her Majesty would be entirely justified in punishing you with a day of kneeling!”

Su Jiao’s footsteps stopped at once.

As things stood, she was merely a minor Prince’s Consort of Yongning Hall, and the other woman was the Empress. If she couldn’t even endure a quarter of an hour, it would indeed be far too easy to hand the Empress a pretext to deal with her.

She fell silent for a moment, then turned back.

“The attendant speaks reasonably. I was too hasty.”

Seeing her return, the attendant smiled smugly and was about to hand her the tea, but instead saw Su Jiao pick up the cushion and walk straight up the steps.

She stopped just two steps away from the Empress.

So that was it—she wanted to be closer.

The attendant grew even more convinced that this one was easy to manipulate, and handed down the tea from her position of height.

“Might I have it reheated?”

The irritation on Su Jiao’s face had already vanished; she spoke gently, with a smile.

“Otherwise, by the time Mother Empress wakes, I fear it will have gone cold.”

The attendant’s face lit up with delight.

“Wait here, Prince’s Consort.”

She went down the steps to exchange the tea, and by the time she returned, Su Jiao was already kneeling on the cushion.

The tea was scalding hot, still sending up wisps of steam—even the attendant found it hot to hold as she thought to herself: she had deliberately chosen the hottest tea. This pampered daughter from the Su family would surely blister her hands just from holding it a while.

After all, Her Majesty had no intention of “waking” today.

Su Jiao took the tea without any change in expression.

The attendant said smugly:

“The tea must be held steady, and mustn’t be allowed to cool—otherwise Her Majesty won’t find it to her taste.”

“Of course.”

Su Jiao smiled mildly, the gold needle concealed in her sleeve. The instant the attendant turned away, Su Jiao, shielded by her sleeve, struck downward without mercy.

“Ah—!”

The Empress, who had been feigning sleep with her eyes closed, was jolted by the piercing pain into a sharp cry. Before she could even open her eyes and grow furious, Su Jiao lifted the teacup’s lid and flung the contents straight at her hand.

The scalding tea splashed entirely over her robes and hand; her hand immediately reddened with a burn, and the Empress’s shriek nearly tore through the sky.

—

“Come meet your Mother Empress.”

When Xie Yan was summoned by Emperor Jia to Qianqing Palace, he was staring blankly at a portrait on the wall.

His gaze shifted to the portrait, and his usually cold brow and eyes rarely showed a touch of warmth—then, as though recalling something, turned complicated again.

Emperor Jia, not noticing his expression, asked with his back to him.

“How do you feel, these past few days out and about? Better than being cooped up your whole life in Yongning Hall?”

Xie Yan said nothing, and Emperor Jia paid it no mind.

“You’re far more decisive than you used to be.”

That night, among so many sons, only he had dared to loose an arrow to save him—Emperor Jia had seen his resolve and boldness from that.

“A few years in the Cold Palace weren’t entirely wasted, after all.”

Before the praise had even finished, Emperor Jia seemed to recall something else.

“It’s just that you still need more tempering. In the position you’ll hold in the future, you mustn’t be too soft-hearted or weak-willed—after all…”

“Father Emperor.”

Impatience had already crept into Xie Yan’s brow and eyes as he cut him off.

Emperor Jia stopped, and didn’t bring it up again—since his son’s return, their meetings had been few, and he didn’t want to keep quarreling with him every time.

“Let’s talk about your mother.”

Father and son spent nearly an hour together in Qianqing Palace. Perhaps because the conversation had turned to the late Empress, their relationship grew unusually warm. By the end, a smile had appeared on Emperor Jia’s face, and he said on impulse:

“Stay and dine with Zhen today—”

“Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! The Third Prince’s Consort threw tea on Her Majesty the Empress in Fengyi Palace—Her Majesty has fainted from rage!”

By the time father and son rushed over, all that could be heard from within Fengyi Palace was wailing growing louder by the moment.

The instant the door was pushed open, the Empress, drenched in tea with her hair in disarray, walked toward Emperor Jia.

“Your Majesty, look at this daughter-in-law—this consort nearly died at her hands!”

Su Jiao, standing by the door, threw herself straight into Xie Yan’s arms.

“Husband, Mother Empress has twisted the truth so badly against me, I might as well just die!”

Xie Yan seized the moment to hold her, leaving Emperor Jia with a splitting headache.

“What exactly happened?”

His tone turned grave.

Before the Empress could even begin her complaint, Su Jiao had already raised her hand and was sobbing toward Xie Yan.

“Look at my hand—it’s gone red just from offering tea to Mother Empress, and she still says this consort wasn’t sincere enough!”

Xie Yan looked at her fingertips, once pale as scallion-white, now flushed red, and his face immediately turned cold.

Emperor Jia’s expression darkened as he turned to the Empress.

“As mistress of the inner palace, do you not even have this much tolerance for the younger generation?”

The Empress looked over in disbelief.

“This consort has been wronged! I called her to offer tea, and merely rested briefly—I never imagined she would grow so impatient as to throw scalding tea on my hand! Your Majesty, how can someone so vicious be fit to serve as a Prince’s Consort of the royal family?”

“Is that how it happened?”

Emperor Jia turned a cold eye toward Su Jiao.

“Father Emperor, please see clearly.”

Su Jiao’s eyes turned redder still.

“This child came to offer tea as instructed, but Mother Empress slept so long that I knelt there for quite some time. When I saw Mother Empress’s eyes open, I meant to hand her the tea, but I’m not sure if she’d had a nightmare—when she startled awake, she raised her hand and struck the teacup. I had knelt so long that my legs and hands had already gone numb. It was Mother Empress herself who knocked over the teacup and scalded her own hand—how could that be blamed on this child?”

She looked toward Xie Yan with a wronged expression.

“This consort nearly fell down the steps, and my legs are completely numb from kneeling.”

A dark, fierce look instantly clouded Xie Yan’s face.

Seeing that the Empress made no move to deny having been asleep, Emperor Jia coughed and spoke.

“There’s bound to be some friction between mother- and daughter-in-law. Perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding…”

“Then how about sending Her Majesty the Empress to pay a day’s tea respects to Imperial Grandmother instead?”

Xie Yan cut in coldly, and Emperor Jia immediately backed down.

Having been put on the spot by his own son, he glared at the Empress instead.

“If you called for someone to offer you tea, why were you sleeping?”

Did she think he didn’t know these tricks of the rear palace?

“It was only a brief rest. Besides, this consort’s hand was pricked by someone—I’m still not sure who—and that’s what startled me awake—”

The Empress raised her hand before Emperor Jia in imitation of Su Jiao’s earlier gesture, but apart from the redness from the scalding tea, there wasn’t the faintest other mark on the back of her hand.

The crying abruptly stopped.

Emperor Jia’s face turned cold, and he swept his sleeve and left.

“Reflect properly behind closed doors. The Third Prince and his consort’s tea ceremony is excused for now—send some gifts over as an apology!”

The Empress, holding her swollen, reddened hand, called after Emperor Jia, weeping, while Xie Yan, his face cold, led the still-sniffling Su Jiao out of Fengyi Palace.

Once outside, in a place with no one around, she was still crying softly when Xie Yan released her hand.

“Keep crying and it’ll start to look fake. I hear it’s also easy to cry yourself ugly.”

Su Jiao immediately wiped away her tears and blinked innocently.

“It wasn’t like that at all.”

If kneeling for a quarter hour might have been argued with a bit more reason behind it, well—between this life and the last, between old grudges and new, the Empress had set her up one last time even on her deathbed. If she could still hold back after all that, she wouldn’t be Su Jiao.

Seeing her honesty, Xie Yan’s expression finally softened.

“Look at you—bullying your elders to their face and hiding it from your own husband behind their backs. There’s not a trace of a proper young lady about you. You’re practically a demoness.”

“Your Highness, the things you say.”

She glared at him in displeasure, but then it struck her—wasn’t her infamous title of “demon empress” from her past life owed precisely to this very mother-in-law?

It was after Xie Yan ascended the throne that she had paid her first visit to this official mother by marriage.

Just as in this life, it had been a show of force from the start—the Empress’s methods were always so shallow, giving her a cushion and making her kneel.

Back then, not wanting to stir up trouble, she had knelt for nearly two hours, her legs stiff, not daring to say a word to wake the woman.

Holding the scalding tea in her hands, her palms had reddened from the heat, sweat beading on her forehead, her vision going dark in waves.

It was only after two hours that the official mother above—by then Empress Dowager—had finally called for her to rise.

She had carefully gotten to her feet holding the tea, but just as she was about to hand it over, her vision went black and she pitched forward, the water and cup together drenching the Empress Dowager from head to toe.

The teacup struck her on the temple, splitting the skin open and drawing blood.

In less than a quarter hour, Cining Palace had been thrown into chaos.

Terrified, fearing the Empress Dowager would have her seized and charged on the spot, she had fled through the side hall door in a panic and collided with someone coming the other way.

Rubbing her reddened nose, she had looked up, and the moment she saw who it was, the tears had spilled over.

“What should I do, Your Majesty.”