"Hero Nie, His Majesty has already agreed to the Surrogate Birth. Our plan for The Crown Prince Replaced by a Cat—"
"I know."
Nie Yunyi sat under the tree with his sword cradled in his arms, feigning sleep, the very picture of indifference.
Li Fei said no more. She went straight back to her room, kicked off her shoes, climbed onto the bed, and nuzzled up against Miss Stepdaughter.
"Homesick?"
"None of your business."
Lilith hugged her knees, her voice muffled.
"Once the last piece of business is done, we'll go back."
Li Fei linked arms with her, beaming. "And when we do, I'll model for you. You draw your comics, sell a hundred thousand copies, two hundred thousand, and we split the money right down the middle—"
"Nobody wants you as a model."
Lilith didn't look the least bit interested. She snapped that back sullenly and went on staring blankly at her own snow-pale toes.
"Oh, right. There's something I need to take care of before we go. It might be a little dangerous. Give me a hand, just in case."
Li Fei turned her face toward her, and her expression sobered.
"Go on."
"It's like this—"
Li Fei laid the whole thing out point by point, and only then set off for the palace as she did every other day.
"Her Majesty is waiting inside, my Lord. You may go in on your own."
Miss Palace Maid pointed toward the tightly shut doors across the courtyard, hesitated a moment, then added a quiet warning: "Her Majesty is not in good spirits."
"Thank you."
Li Fei gave her a radiant smile. "Go and rest. If anything comes up, I'll let you know."
Miss Palace Maid stole another glance or two at Li Fei before withdrawing obediently.
Li Fei pushed the door open and stepped in alone, and the first thing she saw was the bride sitting motionless at the edge of the bed.
The silent, freezing hall was like a coffin. Even with red marriage candles standing at the head of the bed, the cold in them left little room for festive cheer.
And the woman inside the coffin wore the phoenix coronet and the bridal cloud-robe, her bright cosmetics only making her more dazzling. Only her posture was too upright, too correct, and no trace of shyness showed in those cool, clear brows and eyes. Rather than a bride awaiting her wedding, she was a spray of red plum blossom flowering in a winter wilderness — with no one at all to admire her beauty, she still held herself erect on the branch against the wind and the snow, proud and solitary, and carrying with it a stately, unhurried magnificence.
But as Miss Imperial Physician pulled the door shut with a creak and walked toward her without haste, Su Wen's fingers tightened, and ripples spread at last across those eyes like autumn pools.
"Is Your Majesty getting married?"
Li Fei came to a stop in front of her, glanced left and right for a while, and feigned bafflement. "But how is it I don't see a bride anywhere?"
"Light the candles."
Su Wen seemed not to have heard a word of it. She wanted to control the tempo.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Miss Imperial Physician obliged without argument, picked up the fire-starter laid ready beside the bed, and lit the candles. The warm glow lit up Su Wen's earrings — and the ears turning red behind them.
"Undress… Us."
Su Wen brought out the new order with visible difficulty, her voice a shade hoarser than usual, her gaze lowered, not daring to meet Miss Imperial Physician's bright, wandering eyes.
"Oh, come on, you're a glacier. Not one shred of romance in you."
"This is your wedding night! Isn't there anything you want to say? Anything you want to do?"
"And don't get all burdened about it. You've been wife to a man who wants men for years and years. What's wrong with enjoying yourself for once?"
"Let me tell you, if you use the undressing properly, it can add a great deal to the mood—"
Miss Demon had popped up at some point and now sat on the other side of the bed, chattering without pause, delivering technical guidance, which left Su Wen more than a little flustered.
Yet her head was swimming. Under a nervousness she had never known in her life, she followed Miss Demon's advice on pure instinct, and before Li Fei could begin undressing her, she spoke again:
"Sit on Our lap."
Miss Imperial Physician covered her mouth and laughed, then settled herself obediently, sideways, onto those long, firm, springy thighs.
In that instant a rich fragrance of tea flooded Su Wen's nose.
But with warm, soft, fragrant jade in her arms, Her Majesty only grew more nervous. Her limbs stiffened; she had no idea where to put her hands, and could only glance awkwardly aside, waiting for Miss Demon to feed her the next move.
"Be bold! Do what you want to do!"
Miss Demon egged her on.
Su Wen was silent for a moment, then slowly lifted her head, and her uneasy gaze collided with Miss Imperial Physician's moist, glistening eyes.
And out of the deep pool sealed for years beneath hard ice, lava came bursting up.
Su Wen closed her eyes, one porcelain hand clasping the back of Miss Imperial Physician's head, and offered up her rouged lips.
The strings of ornaments on the phoenix coronet, which always swayed in perfect silence to display the most elegant bearing, broke into a dense, disordered clatter.
Half a second later Miss Imperial Physician yelped, clapped a hand over her nose, and fixed the Empress with a pair of wide, tear-brimmed eyes, thoroughly aggrieved.
"Why did Your Majesty ram me with your nose…"
Clearly, when a woman with no experience whatsoever dares to attempt mouth-to-mouth with her eyes shut, the result is a botched angle — philtrum, meet nose.
Su Wen's face flushed like sunset cloud. She wrenched her head aside, and along with a shame beyond anything she had ever felt came a rising surge of grief and fury.
Making a spectacle of herself during the treatments was one thing. Why now as well…
Was this all We could ever be in front of her? This wretched?
At the thought, this mature, dignified, cool and detached Empress ground her teeth like a sulking girl, lifted her head, cupped Miss Imperial Physician's cheeks in both hands, and leaned in again.
Smack.
This time the angle was right. But the crisp sound of a palm landing on Su Wen's cheek, neither light nor hard, cut the motion short.
Li Fei looked down her nose at the Empress, whose face had gone white in an eyeblink, and said coldly:
"You intend to do a thing like this. Did you ask my consent?"
The light drained out of Su Wen's eyes. She covered her face without a word. The heart that had only just begun to stir was sealed under ice again, and scalded by a burning humiliation at the same time.
Under Miss Imperial Physician's gaze, the Empress, mother to the realm, could not produce a single word. A mist rose in her eyes. Her self-respect and her pride tottered, ready to collapse along with the tears.
"Don't cry."
Li Fei took command of the room, cradling Su Wen's cheek with sudden tenderness. "Your servant lost her heart to Your Majesty at first sight. Naturally I am willing to stay at Your Majesty's side to the end of our days…"
"Then why…"
Su Wen let out a breath, relief and a fretful, grasping resentment tangled together in her voice.
She never realized that what should have been a woman of rank commanding a junior official to attend her bed had slipped entirely into Miss Imperial Physician's hands, her heartstrings rising and falling with every word and gesture of the woman in her lap.
"If I've guessed right…"
Li Fei said with a faint smile, "Your Majesty means to have me, and then take her own life?"
Su Wen's eyelids trembled. She did not deny it.
"Your servant may not understand a damned thing about wifely virtue, but where feelings are concerned I have always been faithful to one person, start to finish."
Li Fei's smile spread brighter still. "So either don't provoke me at all, or take proper responsibility for me. Don't imagine you can have this girl's body and then simply die on her."
Su Wen clenched the hem of her robe, and a clean line of tears ran down. "We are not only Su Wen. We are the principal daughter of the Su house, the model for every woman under heaven…"
She had let go of her purity as Zhao Bing's wife, and let go of the imperial family's face, but the mountain inside her would not be shifted altogether.
Even wanting revenge on the man who was her husband in name, even wanting to live once for her own sake, Su Wen had never once considered simply running away. What she wanted was to write a beautiful full stop at the end of her life.
"And so?"
Li Fei asked.
"We have done what violates a wife's duty. We have lost Our chastity, and it can never be concealed. Only death covers it. Only death leaves a veil over the shame."
Su Wen looked at her straight on and spoke what was truly in her. "Otherwise it is not only the Su house that is ruined — the harm done to women throughout the realm would be past all measuring…"
"I have a way to cover the whole thing up."
Li Fei pressed her forehead to Su Wen's. "The dog emperor wants you to bear a child, doesn't he? Then bear one."
"That is impossible…"
Su Wen shook her head on reflex, but looking into those sincere, warm eyes, her voice grew weaker and weaker until it had all but melted away.
Li Fei brought her lips to Su Wen's ear and murmured her plan.
The thought of it — dangerous, insane, treasonous past all forgiveness — hauled Su Wen's heart into her throat. She gripped Li Fei's shoulder and said unsteadily:
"How could we possibly…"
Li Fei met her eyes without wavering.
"I do this not for myself alone, but for the common people as well… Your Majesty must know better than I how muddleheaded that dog emperor is."
"Besides…"
The flattering minister who ruined states and blighted the people gathered Su Wen deep into her arms and bewitched her with a low, doting whisper:
"Even out of pure selfishness — if it means a lifetime at Your Majesty's side, your servant is willing to take the risk…"
Miss Demon crowded in as well, breathing hot against Su Wen's ear, pushing the fire higher and higher:
"What are you still hesitating for?"
"Not only did you spend your life as the wife of a man who wants men, you ran the inner palace conscientiously all those years. And what came of it? He and another man are scheming over your belly! If the dog emperor has no decency, don't blame yourself for having no loyalty!"
"You've finally found someone who treats you sincerely — so why are you still shrinking back at every step?"
"You are the Empress. You ought to dare go first where no one else in the world will!"
"Even that dog emperor dared to face down his entire court for Lu Qianfan's sake! No way. No way. Don't tell me Her Majesty only ever wanted to bed the girl, and turtles up the second anything real comes along?"
"…"
The firelight lit the red candles reflected in Su Wen's eyes, and the leaping flames burned brighter still.
At last she drew a deep breath of that tea fragrance and closed her eyes.
"Since your heart is set this way, We… shall not fail you either."
The words had barely left her when Miss Imperial Physician pushed her down. The phoenix coronet slid loose, and her long black hair spilled out across the bed like an ink painting.
"Your Majesty. Are you ready for your wedding night?"
Miss Imperial Physician gazed down from above at this beauty who was older than her, far more exalted than her within the palace, and taller than her besides, smiling sweetly all the while.
"We…"
Su Wen tried to say something and was cut off.
"Now that I think about it… Your Majesty has been married, so why were you so terribly out of practice just now? Don't tell me you have still. Never. Known. A. Man?"
Li Fei clapped a hand over her mouth in mock astonishment, her eyes brimming with mischief. "Your servant will be very gentle with—"
She never got to finish. Miss Imperial Physician gave a startled cry as the Empress flipped her over.
Su Wen rolled on top of her, pinning her down, looked at the soft, tender, heartbreakingly lovely creature beneath her, and bit off each word:
"Today it falls to Us to give you a treatment or two. You will simply lie there and take it."
Miss Imperial Physician had arrived at Funing Palace in the early morning. By the time she left the palace grounds, night had fallen.
A few steps out, she ran head-on into the injured party.
"Beloved Minister, the Empress—"
Zhao Bing could not wait to ask.
"Your servant examined her with the greatest care, top to bottom, inside and out."
Li Fei gave her assurance on the spot. "Her Majesty is very moist— ah, no. Very healthy!"
"And as for the matter of the dynasty's line…"
Zhao Bing put the crucial question with even greater unease.
"I did not fail the charge."
Without a flicker of expression, Li Fei clasped her hands behind her back and covered her tailbone, keeping Miss Tail — who by rights had done the lion's share of the work — from popping out to claim her reward. Then she smiled with gratified warmth. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Felicitations, Your Majesty. The imperial house has an heir."
Zhao Bing let out a long breath at that, and then the dragon countenance blazed with delight.
"We have put you to great trouble, Beloved Minister… We hardly know how We ought to reward you."
"Your Majesty stands on too much ceremony. I am a servant of the Great Song, and the dynasty's line touches the very altars of state. Serving Your Majesty is simply my duty."
Li Fei waved a hand, all modesty.
"If every officer of Our court were like you, Beloved Minister, what worry would We have for the flourishing of the realm?"
Zhao Bing was still marveling when he took a sudden step closer, his voice full of concern. "But Beloved Minister, your color — why does it look so…"
Obviously. Female ghosts, then consorts, then the Empress, one body after another, and on top of all that she still had to account for the sprites' Witch Sickness — and to console the newly fatherless eldest Miss Wang she had to go at it again. How could her color be anything but bad?
Li Fei forced a smile and waved it away. "Since taking charge of the Demon-Locking Tower, official business has kept me run off my feet… and I must attend to the health of the noble ladies besides. I have overtaxed myself a little, and an old complaint has flared up."
"Do you see that? A pillar of the realm like this — one of her alone is worth a hundred thousand crack troops!"
Zhao Bing pointed at Li Fei and delivered the sentiment to the eunuch beside him with feeling, then swept his great sleeve. "Go and fetch Our aged ginseng root, and present it to Minister Li."
"At once, Your Majesty."
The eunuch received the order and hurried away.
"Your Majesty, I couldn't, truly, I couldn't…"
Li Fei protested, waving both hands.
"Do not refuse Us."
Zhao Bing clapped her hard on the shoulder. "Beloved Minister has spent herself utterly for the state. How could We treat you shabbily?"
"Your Majesty truly is an enlightened sovereign!"
Back at the Prime Minister's Residence with the aged ginseng root in her arms — a five-figure sum in Wealth Points — Li Fei was still shaking her head in wonder.
Farming out the fathering of a child on his own Empress to a subordinate was one thing. Afterward he actually fretted that the subordinate might be worn out, and insisted on pressing expensive tonics on her to build her strength back up…
An emperor this magnanimous! From this day forward, anyone who called him a muddleheaded ruler would have Li Fei to answer to.
She caught sight of a light still burning in Miss Stepdaughter's room and pushed the door straight open.
"Why aren't you asleep yet? Don't tell me you can't bear to leave the Great Song."
"I'm studying spellcraft. Don't bother me."
Lilith held the Legacy left behind by the Thousand-Year Tree Demon in one hand while the other traced and scribbled through the air; she didn't lift her head.
"Fine, fine, fine. I haven't shut my eyes in two days. I'm going to sleep first."
Miss Stepmother threw her a French military salute, hugged the Moon Pillow to her chest, and dropped straight into a dead sleep.
"Go sleep in your own room…"
Lilith lodged a token protest, but her voice trailed lower and lower, as though she were afraid of disturbing someone's sweet dream.
She bent back over her spellcraft. But the long, even breathing behind her, and the tea fragrance slowly steeping through the room, left Miss Stepdaughter more and more unable to concentrate.
At last Lilith set the bark scroll down like a woman giving up, sat in silence a moment, then stood and crept toward her young, beautiful, sound-asleep stepmother.
Every movement was painstakingly careful, as though she feared waking the sleeping beauty.
The distance was a bare handful of steps, and Miss Stepdaughter took a full half minute to cross it — then another ten-odd seconds to lower herself gently onto the edge of the bed.
So beautiful…
Lilith gazed at Miss Stepmother's face without a sound, her water-blue eyes gone unmistakably hazy. Then melancholy took them over.
But beauty like this doesn't belong to me…
Lilith lowered her eyes and pinched the hem of her skirt.
She understood how it would go. Once they were back, Li Fei would fall into her mother's arms again… and then the two of them would still be mother and daughter, still classmates, still friends.
But even if they never went back, even away from her mother, what would it change? Nothing, except that when the two of them held hands and watched the stars, she wouldn't have to feel like a thief.
Lilith gave a small, self-mocking laugh and made to stand — and found she could not drag her gaze off Miss Stepmother's face, no matter how she tried.
That quiet, lovely face was a poison that gave off a sweet scent, trickling steadily down onto the Forbidden seed that had long since sprouted inside her, feeding it everything it needed to bloom.
Little by little those sapphire eyes clouded over again, rippling in time with the pounding of her heart.
As if some spirit had taken her hand, Lilith reached out, the pale soft pad of her finger trembling as she brushed aside a strand of hair clinging to Miss Stepmother's cheek.
Before we go back.
Before I return to my mother's side.
Just let me…
Miss Stepdaughter bent slowly down, and the tea fragrance ran upstream on her scalding breath and flooded her brain.
Just this once.
Miss Stepdaughter closed her eyes and tasted, for the second time, the sweetness that had haunted her dreams.
As lovely as in those dreams, as sweet as in her memory, rich with the fragrance of tea — except that now there was a thread of something unfamiliar woven through it, sweet and faintly metallic, and beneath that, almost too faint to catch… plum blossom?
Click.
The sudden sound of a camera shutter sent a shudder through Miss Stepdaughter, caught in the act of stealing the forbidden fruit.
She opened her eyes with something close to despair, tragic and resolute — and what met them was Miss Stepmother's own eyes, open, and for who knew how long.
Li Fei waggled her phone, displaying the snapshot she'd just taken, her whole face alight with amusement.
"Ara ara~ Look what I caught on camera."
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