IT WAS MISFORTUNE after misfortune after misfortune. That was the only way I'd be able to describe my sixth year in Luoyang. For a mere two weeks after Luo Xueying's funeral, we were all sent into chaos again when news came that Yunhua had been poisoned. While eating food intended for the Crown Prince.
I was summoned this time, by His Highness, to the Palace, Yunjun and Yunxuan with me. We all agreed to keep the news from Grandmother, wary of her ill health and concerned she would not be able to take such news.
The Crown Prince was there to greet us when we arrived at Yunhua's Palace. He made his way to us, and all three of us fell into a deep curtsy.
Yunxuan was the first to speak, sounding panicked. "Your Highness, is the Crown Princess Consort well?"
Instead of answering directly, the Crown Prince nodded at a nearby Imperial Physician, who bowed and began, "Your ladyships, the Princess Consort's condition is stable, but she is still unconscious and unlikely to awake very soon. Most of the poison has been removed from her system, and the only thing we could do now is wait."
"How could this have happened?" Yunjun asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "And Your Highness, mind my bluntness, I heard that the poison was intended for you?"
"Yes," he replied. "It was a soup that I was not particularly fond of, so I granted it to the Princess Consort, who was accompanying me in my office. She immediately began showing symptoms."
"This is all far too coincidental," I pointed out. "Your Highness, someone must be trying to harm the Eastern Palace and its inhabitants."
"I am aware," he sighed. "The Princess Consort was right. I will begin investigations." Begin investigations? Had he not already started them before? Yunjun and I exchanged a glance but said nothing.
Yunxuan began, "Your Highness, would we be able to visit her?"
"That was what I intended," he murmured. "And I'm more than happy for you to spend the night in the Eastern Palace if you wish to, to watch over her. I am busy with my work and cannot spend all my time here, and I'm afraid she would feel lonely to awake without any family or friends around. Your uncle is informed?"
"Aye, Your Highness."
"Good. I have already reported this to the Emperor, and he has sent some of his best Physicians. I'm sure the Princess Consort would be fine. I shall return to my Hall. Imperial Physician Wang, bring the ladies in."
We all curtsied as he left, straightening once he was out of sight. Immediately, the Physician brought us into Yunhua's bedchamber. There were many servants there, carrying buckets of water and medicine. On the bed lay Yunhua, flat on her back, her face pale and visibly in pain despite her lack of consciousness.
Oh god.
What if she had died? What then? What if they hadn't gotten the poison out of her system in time? What if it was Yunhua's corpse we were seeing now, instead of her unconscious body?
How could they have been so uncareful? How could the Crown Prince's food have been poisoned?
And three consecutive cases, one by one, each hitting the heart of the Eastern Palace, each chipping away at the Crown Prince. And they succeeded, over and over again.
"Has it been found who put the poison?" Yunjun bellowed. "What good are any of you if someone can simply poison the Crown Prince and Princess Consort?"
The servants all dropped onto their knees. Yunxuan patted her sister on the arm. "Oh, it is not their fault if someone has such malicious intent. Control your anger, sister, if just for the sake of older sister's rest."
"Truly, this is getting ridiculous. Oh, rise, all of you. Get back to work," I ordered, glancing around. "The Crown Prince would not let you off if anything happens to the Princess Consort!"
Yunxuan made her way to the bedside, slowly sitting down, glancing at Yunhua's sheet-pale face. "Bloody hell."
"Two babies lost, a Side Consort dead and a Princess Consort poisoned," I seethed. "And the culprit has not been caught?"
"I'm going to run my own investigations," Yunjun glowered. "I'll have my own men look into it as well." Seemed about right. Many of Yunjun's soldiers had returned to Luoyang with her, and they'd had contacts. And be able to find information faster than Yunxuan or I would be able to, at any rate. We didn't have the right people for it anyways.
I didn't think any of us trusted the Crown Prince's investigations anymore. Not with his absolute failure so far. We had all faced the truth now that he was completely incompetent in this manner of things, and in fact with most things related to politics. And I feared, with Yunhua's incapacitation, that this would only become more obvious to others as well. Yunhua had to recover quickly, before people took notice.
Before it became too obvious who it was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
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"YOUR HIGHNESS, THE poisoner has been found."
After our visit to Yunhua's, we'd all been invited to have some tea at the Crown Prince's and discuss the situation. It was midway through our conversation his leading eunuch rushed in to announce the news.
The Crown Prince shot to his feet. "What are you waiting for, bring them in now!"
Yunjun and I exchanged a glance. Yunxuan sat up a little straighter. The eunuchs dragged in a man who looked rather roughed up, as if he'd been in a fight, tossing him onto the ground before us. I inched back in my chair.
"You poisoned the food?" the Crown Prince demanded, finally having some semblance of the heir to the throne as he slammed his fist into the table.
The man let out a rough laugh. "Ye...yes. I poisoned the food."
I'd expected it to be a little bit more difficult. But who was I to complain? The poisoner would have surely been someone within the Eastern Palaceâit was near impossible for it to have been someone from outside, considering the security. And after Yunhua's incident, we knew there had to be a mole. If Luo Xueying's early labour was caused by malicious intent as well, then there were surely enemy agents within the Eastern Palace, right beneath our noses.
And well you truly started hunting for them, well, it wasn't all that difficult to locate.
The problem was, it seemed, that the Crown Prince hadn't even been looking. Until now.
It made me angry the more I thought about it. Bloody hell, with this kind of efficiency, how was he to lead our country in the future? It would end in disaster. No wonder the Empress needed him to marry both Yunhua and Luo Xueying. Certainly he needed the backing of both families if he wanted to even stand a chance.
"Who ordered you to do so?" Yunjun demanded. "Who are you working for?"
"Well," the man said between coughs, "I can't... can't tell you that, can I?"
The Crown Prince raised his head. "Throw him to the Office of Punishment, I'm sure they can make him talk."
"I don't think that's wise," I murmured. "Your Highness, the Office of Punishment offers far too much opportunity for our enemies to kill this man before he can talk. It may be wiser to keep the news hushed and have him remain in the Eastern Palace, under your careful eye, for at least a while."
The Crown Prince looked thoughtful, and then nodded. "Guards, bring him to the Side Hall and make him talk. Make sure he does not die before he tells us everything."
Yunjun stood. "I can help with that."
"Oh, General Shangguan, leave it to my men. A woman like you should not have to get your hands dirty with matters like this," the Crown Prince said casually. Yunjun turned to him, blinking in surprise. Yunxuan audibly choked back a laugh.
That might be the most ridiculous thing anyone had said to Yunjun in a while.
But the Crown Prince didn't seem to notice the ridiculousness of his statement, instead looking rather pleased as the man was dragged off by the guards, out of our sight. I shifted in my seat. In all honesty, I just wanted to get out of the Crown Prince's presence at this point.
Yunxuan cleared her throat. "Your Highness, I'm wondering if I could stay with the Crown Princess Consort tonight just to make sure she is alright."
"Of course," the Crown Prince replied, nodding. "The Empress says she shall come visit the Princess Consort later this afternoon, would you all like to stay for that? Or would you like to return first?"
Yunjun and I exchanged a glance. I started, "I'm more than happy to stay and greet Her Majesty. It has been ages since I've greeted her."
"Of course." He nodded. "I ought to get back to work now again, but I shall come when the Empress does. Feel free to return to the Princess Consort's residence, or perhaps visit some of the other concubines. I don't believe you've met many of them."
"No," Yunxuan demurred, "But I wouldn't want to bother anyone. And we are far too worried about the Princess Consort to do anything else. With your permission, sir, I will send a message back home for some changes of clothes to be sent here tonight for my stay."'
"The two of you will return home later?" the Crown Prince asked in confirmation, nodding at the two of us.
"Aye, Your Highness," Yunjun answered for me. "I think Yunxuan's presence is sufficient enough in case Yunhua wakes up."
"Excellent. I will send word of anything we get out of the poisoner as soon as I hear anything of it, so do not worry."
At this point, the Crown Prince's words meant very little to me, but I nodded and curtsied anyway before the three of us left the sitting room, making our way quietly to Yunhua's hall. Our moods were all muted now, none of us quite sure what to say. Yunxuan was still visibly scared, Yunjun with a sense of grim determination.
I wasn't sure what was on my face. It must not be pretty, though.
There was an anger inside me burning brighter with every second that passed. Pure, unadulterated rage at the fact that they'd done these things and gotten away with it. At my feeling of complete uselessness, that I couldn't even contribute to the investigation, that the only thing I could do was sit here and watch.
I couldn't stay powerless forever.
I had to do something. Or at least, I had to start doing something so that the next time something like this happened, I wouldn't be completely helpless. I had to have some power in my own hands, not just Chiqian's, or without him I'd be completely defenceless.
There were people out to get us, and I wasn't going to keep standing by and doing nothing.
It was then nightmare struck again. A frantic servant ran out of Yunhua's call, bolting towards us the moment she saw us. "Your ladyships! Your ladyships!" She collapsed on her knees before us, staring up, wide-eyed. "The Shangguan Manor sends news. The Dowager Lady Shangguan has suffered from a heart attack. I'm afraid she has passed away."
The sentence was punctuated with a dramatic fainting from Yunxuan, who stood beside me.
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"WHO TOLD HER?" Yunjun demanded, pacing the garden in Grandmother's courtyard. Uncle looked distraught in the corner, more lost than I'd ever seen him in my life.
We'd left Yunxuan in the Eastern Palace under the care of the Imperial Physicians, deeming her too unwell to be moved, while Yunjun and I had rushed to the Shangguan Manor after sending a missive to the Crown Prince and an apology for being unable to greet the Empress.
We were far too late when we'd gotten there.
Uncle sighed. "Well, at least we'd been expecting her to go for a while. She received a letter informing her of Yunhua's poisoning. I don't know who sent it. We're trying to track it as we speak."
"So soon?" I asked, glancing up. "Only a few people know about her poisoning. There has to be a mole in the Crown Prince's household. Unless that poisoner managed to get a message out beforehand? But they wouldn't know it was Yunhua who'd gotten poisoned, they'd think it was the Crown Prince."
"Heaven knows," Uncle said, shaking his head in dismay. "She read it and immediately fainted. Never woke up after that."
Yunjun swore under her breath. "This was what we were trying to avoid. Her hearing about it."
"Too late now," Tianjin hissed. "Whoever's behind this must be punished, Father. It's all a large, connected plot. The assassination attempt earlier this year, the murder of Side Consort Luo, the attempted poisoning of the Crown Prince and now this message to Grandmother? It is aimed for the Eastern Palace and for us."
"The Emperor was unwilling to get too involved until recently, but he will start viewing it straight in the eye now. I have men in the city trying to track the sender of the message, and the poisoner has been caught as well. We never located the assassins, but there's only a few men in this country who are able to train that many skilled assassins. And it's clearly someone with great access to the Imperial household."
"And to ours," I murmured. "Why was the letter even passed on?"
"It was disguised as an invitation," Uncle explained, shaking his head.
"And it was passed on anyways? Grandmother never attends social events anymore."
"She still looks at them," Uncle said.
"Have we the letter?" Yunjun asked.
"Aye," Tianjin replied, producing it from his pocket. "Here it is. This is evidence, be careful with it."
Yunjun snatched it from his hand, unimpressed, glossing through its contents. "The purpose of the letter is very, very clear. This was the intended effect, Grandmother's passing."
"Someone who knows Grandmother's condition well," I observed.
"It doesn't take much to realise what state Grandmother is in," Tianjin pointed out. "She hasn't been seen publicly for ages. Not to mention the Physicians who come pouring in and out of the Manor all day."
Seemed far too much of a coincidence, though. And sending a letter directly was such a risk, especially if they weren't certain it would succeed. I was far more inclined to the fact there were eyes in our households, which I'd been suspecting since the first assassination attempt.
Was the poisoner the mole? It was possible, but in my view it was unlikely. Too easy to discover. And once the poisoner was found, which they would be, they'd have to put another mole in place. No, I was more inclined in believing there were multiple.
Grandmother was gone. That was the one, certain fact right now. The woman who'd kindly showered me with gifts and taught me what I needed to know to survive was gone. And in a way, she had been murdered as well. I didn't feel as sad as I thought I might have, perhaps because this was a long time comingâGrandmother had been sick for ages now, but it was truly starting to set in on me now.
Gone. Just like that. A casualty in this game of power, and she was a master of it too. No one was invulnerable. Everyone had their weaknesses, and that would always be exploited by your enemies.
"The funeral..."
"It will be grand," Uncle said, raising his head. "Your grandmother was an influential figure. Is Yunhua well?"
"Her condition is stable."
"Good, good." Uncle didn't seem particularly worried. "That's good. I'm sure she'll be alright soon." I didn't question it. Uncle had always been rather cold, even though I knew he did care about his daughters. It was just the way his personality was, I supposed, and there was no need to be worried about it.
"Disaster after disaster," Yunjun murmured. "Surely this cannot be good."
"Of course not," Tianjin mocked. "And I have my keju exams soon. I'm scared someone would try to sabotage me."
Yunjun scoffed. "Are you sure you're not saying that just to avoid punishment if you misperform?"
Tianjin scowled. "I will not misperform. Watch me. I've worked so hard for it."
"Do not be arrogant," Uncle scolded. "You have been keeping up with your work? You must make Grandmother proud. She always wanted you to get a good grade in the keju so you would become an official. Do not fail her now."
"I will not let Grandmother down," Tianjin promised, "she will be proud of me down in the nine springs. I will make sure of it, don't you worry, Father. And you too, sister."
Yunjun shrugged. "I shall wait and see for you to prove me wrong. For now, I reserve my doubts." She was taunting Tianjin, of course. Taunting him to work even harder, so that he wouldn't grow too proud and start neglecting his studies so close to his exams. He was the only boy of the Shangguan family. His sisters had all done immaculately for themselves, and now it was his turn to do his duty. He had high expectations to live up to.
"Enough." Uncle announced with a sigh. "I will pass on the news that your Grandmother has passed away. Go home now, I am sure you are all tired after such a hectic day. Minxi, tell the Prince Duan shizi about this and see what they can do. We need to utilise all the resources we can."
"You do not need to tell me twice, sir," I told him earnestly. "We'll do everything we can to root out the villain behind this. I'm sure the Crown Prince will send us information from the poisoner soon as well."
That was a lie. I had no faith in the Crown Prince's efficiency nor skills with interrogation whatsoever. Though his men were competent, perhaps they'd be able to root something out.
Uncle nodded. "I have permission to skip court tomorrow for this," he spread his hands, "but I will send letters to the Emperor requesting a meeting and beg him for intervention, though I do not think it will be necessary to move his hand. This has already approached his territory, and he will not let this happen beneath his very eyes."
"Aye, sir."
"Aye, Father," Yunxuan murmured. "We shall go."
A nod. I gave Grandmother's courtyard one last longing look before the two of us stepped out and left Shangguan Manor.
Another chapter of my life here in Luoyang is irrevocably closed. Another person lost. It felt so recently that I'd gained all these things, and now I was beginning to lose them already.
A pity. A great pity indeed.
I was itching for revenge now. Hungry for it. Chiqian might say I was consumed by personal vengeance. He'd say it was a bad thing. I disagreed.
It was giving me energy, a motivation that I'd never felt before.
It was time for me to do something about all this, rather than being a passive bystander. But first, I needed a plan.
On the carriage ride back to the Prince Duan Manor, I called for Yan'er. Outside the carriage, she replied, "Yes, mistress?"
"Yan'er, do you remember the group of orphans who live near our street?"
"The ones we've been giving out extra food and fabrics to? Aye, mistress."
"It's time for them to make themselves useful. Fetch a bag of coins later, pass it onto them. Tell them I'll pay good money for any tidbit of useful gossip and information they bring me from around the city."
Yan'er was silent for a moment, as if processing the information. Then, she said firmly. "Of course, mistress. It shall be done."
In the carriage, I nodded, satisfied.