She looked at Li's attire again. It was the standard attire for a concubine in a royal palace: a dark red double-breasted jacket with a mink fur lining around it, and a long skirt of the same color with a patterned pattern. The hem of the skirt was very wide. As she sat on the kang like this, Meng Qi could see that the bottom of the skirt seemed to be picked out with silver thread, which was quite eye-catching in this gray room.
Meng Qi squinted her eyes and looked for a long time. She had a headache, as if some signal flashed through her mind, but she couldn't catch it.
Before Meng Qi could think about it further, Li put down the teacup and spoke softly.
"If it weren't for the crown prince, I would have died in the palace long ago. At first, I didn't know he was the crown prince. That winter was really cold, a dry cold without any snow, and the north wind was blowing particularly hard. I remember it clearly. The jacket was still an old one from three years ago. It had almost no cotton and in some places it was only two layers of leather left. They bullied me and forced me to draw water from the well. I was small at the time, and the bucket was so big that I couldn't lift it at all. I finally filled it up, but after a few steps, my feet slipped and the water all spilled, soaking my cotton pants. I just lay there, thinking I was going to die. I felt like I was going to stick to the ground."
When Li said this, she turned her head and looked out the window. Although she couldn't see anything, she just stared at it, and a smile slowly appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"I heard voices and someone put a thick cotton coat on me. I saw him appear before me. He was tall and thin, and he looked at me with a worried look on his face, coughing non-stop. I just looked at him like that, as he stood against the light, a glittering light behind him.
"From then on, the eunuch beside him often came to see me. He not only brought me thick cotton clothes and food, but also gave me some copper coins. But every time he came, he didn't dare let the people in the palace see him. The eunuch told me that he was in a difficult situation too. At that time, it was not long after the late queen passed away. For some reason, the emperor treated him badly. It was precisely because he was not liked by the emperor, and knew the feeling of being excluded and targeted, and the feeling of no one caring, that he felt pity when he looked at me that day.
"It was then that I learned he was actually the Crown Prince. What merit or ability did I have to deserve the Crown Prince's personal care? From then on, I began to inquire about the Crown Prince's affairs. I knew his situation was extremely difficult, with no one to help him, and the princes were eyeing him covetously. I saw it myself, that summer by the pond in the Imperial Garden, when the then Fifth Prince encountered him head-on, and he actually let a Crown Prince give way to the Prince.
"The prince really didn't expect this, and he just stood there motionless. Prince Cheng became impatient, walked straight forward, and bumped into the prince hard. The prince lost his balance and his right foot fell into the pond. I felt so distressed watching Prince Cheng walk away and the prince still standing there. Seeing that there was no one else around, I ran over and helped him clean the mud off his shoes.
"The prince suddenly hugged me. I was so frightened that I didn't dare to move. I let him hold me. When I heard his sobs, I dared not move even more. Only when I heard voices did he hurried away. It was the first time in my life that I was hugged by a man. I can't describe the feeling: fear, surprise, and helplessness, but I know that most of it was excitement and joy."
Meng Qi digested Li's story. It seemed that, up until this point, the Crown Prince's acquaintance with her had been merely a coincidence. The year or so since Empress Jiang's absence had been the Crown Prince's most difficult time.
"Later, I began to long to see him every day. If I didn't see him or hear from him for three or five days, I would feel uneasy and anxious. I took the initiative to take on the task of collecting and delivering clothes to the Eastern Palace, just so that I could see him more often. Although sometimes I couldn't even enter the Eastern Palace, and the eunuchs' clothes were delivered directly to me at the corner gate, I was happy to go. It seemed that just standing at the Eastern Palace gate was like standing by his side.
"That day, it was raining, and the old maid wouldn't let me go, saying it wouldn't dry up in the rain, and I couldn't wash it if I brought it back, and it would take up space. And worst of all, it had a weird smell. But I just wanted to go, my eyelids twitching. It was still the corner gate, no one was guarding it, but the door was open. I went in and called the name of the eunuch who brought me the clothes, but no one answered.
"I continued walking inside, passed a narrow alley, and saw a row of houses. There was still no one there. The door of one room was slightly open. I thought about going over to ask, but I saw the prince standing in the room. His face was red, and the corners of his eyes looked like he had been crying. He smelled strongly of alcohol.
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