The messy red gauze curtains make one uneasy.
As autumn arrives, the night breeze grows cooler.
That night, Zhu Liji entered Kunning Palace, while Zhiwei and Shaoyang waited outside the palace corridor.
The late autumn chill was intense, and the lingering illness Zhiwei had contracted in the Xin Zhe Ku (a place for servants) resurfaced, causing her to shiver slightly. Shao Yang quickly draped the thick coat he had brought over her shoulders, and couldn't help but complain in a low voice, "If His Majesty truly wanted to reconcile with the Empress, wouldn't it have been better to come during the day? Why did he have to choose this time of deep, heavy dew, making us suffer here in the cold?"
Yes, the Empress was confined to her quarters for more than a month. At first, rumors of her being deposed spread throughout the palace, but Zhu Liji did not take any major action. Although he no longer summoned the Empress, the Empress's food, clothing and other necessities were not reduced. As time went on, people lost interest in spreading rumors and simply regarded it as a normal punishment in the harem.
Only the most trusted palace servants of the Yangxin Hall knew that Zhu Liji hadn't stopped summoning Cheng Yuzhi; rather, he had changed his method, frequently visiting Kunning Palace late at night. Sometimes Zhiwei was by his side, sometimes he only brought Pinghai. The reasons were always plausible—whether it was to inquire about the Crown Prince's studies or to retrieve some old items—but each time he stayed, the time far exceeded what was necessary.
Zhiwei pulled her clothes tighter and her gaze fell on the tightly closed palace doors.
Zhu Liji brought her with him every time he entered Kunning Palace at night. Since that test, Zhu Liji was probably tired. As an emperor, he was always suspicious, and he had fewer and fewer close confidants around him. Zhu Liji didn't want to care anymore. After all, she was just a servant, so he allowed Zhiwei to accompany him.
Zhiwei looked into the distance and said calmly, "Why did the Emperor choose this time to come? He has his own reasons."
"Why has Consort Wan temporarily quieted down?" Zhiwei glanced at Shaoyang, then gave her own answer, "It's because the Empress seems to have lost power, and she has gained some benefits. Moreover, in the case of the miscarriage, the people of Kunning Palace ultimately bear the responsibility. If the Emperor openly shows goodwill to the Empress now, what will the court and the harem, especially the Wan family, think? The current situation, being cold in public, but in private... perhaps is the true way to protect oneself."
Shao Yang straightened the wrinkles in Zhiwei's cloak: "Does Your Majesty mean that the Emperor is... protecting the Empress?"
Zhiwei shook her head, recalling Wan Zhen'er's resentful yet triumphant eyes in Chuxiu Palace, the scene of Cheng Yuzhi weeping and Zhu Liji leaving coldly, and the affectionate gaze Zhu Liji had given Cheng Yuzhi in his early years.
Memories of the past flooded my mind, bringing with them many sighs and deep sorrow.
Zhiwei gently shook her head: "When young people tie the knot, there is always some affection between them. But this affection..." She paused, swallowing back the second half of her sentence, "Is it enough to withstand the emperor's schemes?" It turned into an almost inaudible sigh.
"The affairs of the imperial family are not something you or I can presume to speculate on."
She tightened Shao Yang's collar as well: "It's getting windy, stand behind me."
The master and servant waited outside the palace gate for a while, and then the gate opened slightly. Zhiwei craned her neck to look and saw that Pinghai was carrying an empty wine pot out.
He whispered to Zhiwei, "His Majesty has had some wine and said he wants to talk to the Empress for a while longer. Tonight... he will stay at Kunning Palace. Miss Yan is also tired after a long day. Go back to the side hall to rest first. I will take care of things here."
They were all intelligent people, and they understood each other's intentions. They bowed and took their leave, leading Shao Yang back to the side hall of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
After washing and dressing, and removing her hairpins and jewelry, Zhiwei sat upright in front of the mirror, unable to fall asleep. She had seen many old acquaintances recently, and many old memories had surfaced. Zhiwei took a small box from a drawer; inside was a brocade pouch containing a long-withered, sturdy branch.
It is the branch of the moon-blooming orchid, the only item that Zhiwei took from Jingfangyuan before leaving for Xinzheku.
After Zhu Mingyu's death, the moon jasmine stopped growing and withered. Zhiwei tried many methods and consulted many garden masters, but in the end, it was all in vain. She only kept some branches of the moon jasmine with her, which can be regarded as an old object.
Zhu Mingyu, her Mingyu, as time passed since their separation by death, Zhiwei's memories of him gradually faded. Only the image of his receding figure at the palace wall that day remained etched in her memory, as clear as yesterday.
In reality, Zhiwei didn't think about Zhu Mingyu very often. Compared to the devoted lovers in the novels, Zhiwei often felt that she was fickle and her feelings for Zhu Mingyu were rather indifferent. He was not like a lover, but more like a close friend. She had fond memories of him, but no deep and unforgettable affection. At least she could not follow Zhu Mingyu to the afterlife.
Unlike the late Empress, not long after the late Emperor's passing, probably when Zhiwei was still in the Xin Zhe Ku (a place for palace maids), she heard a few tolls of the funeral bell and learned that the late Empress had returned from the temple and followed the late Emperor in death.
That kind of decisiveness is something Zhiwei couldn't do.
She lacked the courage to take a gamble with Zhu Mingyu, and hesitated more because of worldly ties. Perhaps they were too young when they fell in love, and had not yet experienced the daily life of married life. Their affection was destroyed by storms before it could take root.
Zhiwei sometimes felt regret, and sometimes felt fortunate, fortunate that she had not completely succumbed and was still able to survive.
If they had become Zhu Liji and Cheng Yuzhi, their ill-fated relationship would have led to so many problems that even the bricks of the palace walls would have been exhausted.
Zhiwei gazed at her slightly furrowed brows in the bronze mirror, her fingertips lightly tracing the brocade pouch. She smiled self-deprecatingly, then blew out the candle and prepared to sleep.
The autumn wind rustles outside the window, causing it to open and close.
Before I could even feel sleepy, the door was suddenly pushed open with a loud bang, and a gust of wind carrying the smell of alcohol mixed with ambergris swept in.
Zhu Liji stood at the door, his face flushed, but his eyes were eerily bright. The collar of his dragon robe was slightly open, and there were several fresh bloodstains on his cheeks, as if scratched by fingernails. He staggered, his gaze fixed on Zhiwei, who was only wearing an undergarment and had long hair hanging loose.
Before Zhiwei could react, he had already strode to the bedside, grabbed her wrist with surprising force, and then shoved her onto the bed.
——
Inside Kunning Palace, the candlelight flickered, yet it could not dispel the chill in the room.
Cheng Yuzhi lay fully clothed on the couch, her eyes open, as if she had been waiting for a long time. Footsteps sounded, and she knew who had arrived, but her eyes did not move an inch.
Zhu Liji sat down beside her bed, his body carrying the coolness of the night breeze. He poured a cup of wine that had already been warmed, the amber liquid swirling gently in the jade cup.
“I remember our wedding night,” he began, his voice low, “I was so drunk that I didn’t even get to properly drink the nuptial wine with you.”
Zhu Liji held the wine cup to Cheng Yuzhi's lips, his tone unusually gentle: "Let's make up for it today, as if we're starting over, okay?"
Zhu Liji pinched Cheng Yuzhi's chin, trying to bring the wine glass to her lips. Cheng Yuzhi's eyes slowly moved, looking at Zhu Liji with a blank expression, as if she were looking at a stranger.
Her throat moved slightly, but she didn't open it, letting the rim of the cup press a shallow mark on her lips.
What is this? Compensation? Atonement? Or is it to console Zhu Liji's loneliness as an emperor?
That's laughable.
Cheng Yuzhi thought that only when she was on her last legs did she see some things clearly.
Love is like flowing water, impossible to grasp or hold onto. What she sought was nothing more than a mirage, a fleeting illusion; she chose the wrong person and wasted her life.
Cheng Yuzhi gave a very faint smile: "I need to take medicinal diet to regulate my body these days. As instructed by the imperial physician, I must abstain from alcohol."
Zhu Liji's hand froze in mid-air.
Cheng Yuzhi added slowly, her voice as soft as a sigh: "Your Majesty should leave this cup of wine for someone who is willing to drink it. I... do not wish to drink with my husband who believes me to be the murderer, and I am even less willing to see the king who killed Granny Jiang."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Liji's hand trembled slightly, spilling wine onto the brocade quilt, spreading a dark stain. He smiled, then suddenly stood up.
"Clang!" The jade cup was thrown hard onto the ground.
Zhu Liji's chest heaved: "Empress! You don't trust me at all?"
"Given the circumstances at the time, what did you expect me to do? Were you to cover up for the Kunning Palace in front of everyone, thus confirming your guilt of lax management and even premeditated murder of the imperial heir?!"
"I punished you, a palace servant, to protect you and to stabilize the situation in the harem. Yes, I said some nonsense that day, but wasn't it you who provoked me first? Do you think I felt no pain when I said those words?"
Do you think I am completely cold-hearted?
"If Your Majesty is in even a little pain, I will feel a hundredfold, a thousandfold, pain!"
Cheng Yuzhi finally sat up, her voice still soft: "You said you would protect me, yet you let them cut away the people around me one by one. My poor Granny Jiang, whom I regarded as my closest relative since childhood, should have been enjoying her golden years, but unfortunately, she died..."
“Your Majesty,” Cheng Yuzhi raised her eyes, “the stability you seek is paved with my blood. How is such stability any different from that of a butcher?”
Cheng Yuzhi looked at him, her eyes devoid of grief or anger, only a deathly clarity: "Zhu Liji, between us, it's no longer something that a cup of wine can warm up."
This was the first time Zhu Liji had heard his name uttered from her lips, so calm it was suffocating, as if she had long regarded life and death, love and hatred, and even the names of the emperor and empress as dust.
Zhu Liji stood frozen for a long time, the candlelight in the hall flickering, making his expression inscrutable.
"Fine, so you say you can't warm me up!" He suddenly chuckled. "Empress, my patience is limited, yet you've chosen to strike at my deepest wound. Then so be it—this palace, this love, I'll let it all grow cold along with you!"
Zhu Liji was in high spirits, but Cheng Yuzhi closed her eyes and wouldn't even look at him.
Seeing this, Zhu Liji's eyes turned bloodshot, his drunkenness and anger intertwined, turning into hatred.
He suddenly bent down, forcefully gripping Cheng Yuzhi's wrists and pressing them above her head. Cheng Yuzhi struggled, her fingernails leaving several bloody scratches on his cheeks.
Zhu Liji, in pain, became even more violent, tearing open her nightgown to reveal her snow-white shoulders and neck. On the phoenix bed, the brocade quilt billowed, and the bed curtains shook violently, like two trapped beasts wrestling.
The flickering candlelight illuminated the bloodstains on Zhiwei's neck and the defiant glint in her eyes.
"Your Majesty! Wake up!" Zhiwei pressed her hand against his chest, trying to shrink back, her voice trembling.
Zhu Liji, panting heavily, easily subdued her feeble resistance with one hand while tearing at her inner garment with the other: "You can't... no one can abandon me! You have no right... to question me!"
He growled, as if he were shouting at someone else through Zhiwei.
The candle went out abruptly, and darkness swallowed the last shred of reason. He kissed her lips roughly, as if as punishment, his tongue prying open her teeth and entwining with hers relentlessly.
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