The Cining Palace was thick with the smell of medicine.

The Emperor frowned slightly as he stepped inside, spotting Ying Fusheng resting on his sickbed from across the room. A few days had passed, and Ying Fusheng seemed to have grown thinner. The hall was warm and close, the air heavy, yet he sat there unaware of it, his mind somewhere else.

The Emperor gave a small wave of his hand. Eunuch Rong understood and dismissed the other attendants. The sleeping quarters fell quiet.

Ying Fusheng startled when he saw him, took a moment to come back to himself, and hurriedly threw off the covers to climb down and bow. The Emperor waved for him to stop. Eunuch Rong quickly moved to support him. “Your Highness, His Majesty has given special leave. There is no need to bow.”

Ying Fusheng did not listen. He knelt stubbornly on the floor, the whites of his eyes shot through with red.

The Emperor’s gaze shifted. Watching Ying Fusheng’s unsteady steps as he climbed down, he noted the difference between a body weakened from birth and one damaged by years of poisoning.

Physician Chu had spent the past two days using needles to draw out the poison, and Ying Fusheng’s face was paler than it had ever been. The hall was saturated with the smell of sickness, yet he had wrapped himself in thick robes against the cold. Now he knelt before the Emperor, and the Emperor’s frown deepened. “Get up. If you keep kneeling, I will not spare Consort Ning.”

Ying Fusheng’s expression flickered. He stayed bowed low, his voice hoarse. “Mother carried me for ten months through great hardship. The debt of being born weighs as heavy as a mountain. Every part of me exists because of her.”

The Emperor looked at him and let his gaze move around the room.

This small corner of the Cining Palace’s side hall was simply furnished. Ying Fusheng had been living here since he first came to stay.

Kneeling motionless on the floor, his frame looked even smaller.

Every other prince had his own sleeping quarters. Ying Fusheng was here, and even his presence in this room was less noticeable than the pervasive smell of medicine. This child was guileless, yet he carried burdens. The Empress Dowager had been keeping things from him these past days, but he had sensed it all the same. He had been wanting to plead for Consort Ning all along.

The affairs of the Weiyang Palace had long since been laid before the Emperor’s desk, and the picture of how mother and son had lived together over the years had been pieced together from the attendants’ accounts. Consort Ning had treated him with alternating warmth and coldness, yet he held onto her kindness. Even while ill, he remembered her birthday and gone to great lengths to prepare a gift for her, only for Consort Ning to toss it into a storeroom without a second thought. duskblossoms | translated by adeline

The miscellaneous books scattered around the Weiyang Palace, the odds and ends visible everywhere… whatever Consort Ning had given him, he had treasured.

That withdrawn, timid quality, that way of making no impression on others, had been no accident. It was the result of Consort Ning’s deliberate neglect.

The Emperor watched this child, nearly ruined by the people who raised him, kneeling stubbornly and pleading for her. “Your filial devotion to your mother is known to me. You are kneeling now to plead for her.”

Ying Fusheng, still bowed, had been flustered since the Emperor arrived. His hands trembled faintly. “Mother is only ill. Your son knows her crime cannot be forgiven, but I beg Imperial Father to spare her this once. I am willing to accompany Mother to a temple to recuperate and seek repentance…”

The Emperor listened to him stumble through his words, every sentence circling back to Consort Ning.

What had happened in the Imperial Garden was a serious matter. Consort Ning had broken down in front of everyone. Harming a prince was a grave offense, and a length of white silk¹The method of execution by strangulation with a silk cord, traditionally granted to nobles and consorts as a more dignified form of death than beheading. would not have been an unreasonable punishment. Everyone in the inner palace knew this could not end well. Only Ying Fusheng was still here, pleading for his mother.

Even knowing the full weight of Consort Ning’s crimes, this child still believed his mother was simply ill, not that she despised him to the bone.

“You don’t hate her?” the Emperor asked.

Ying Fusheng paused. “She is only ill.”

“You are also ill,” the Emperor said. “Has she shown you a moment’s pity?”

“Had the Suihongzi been any stronger, you would have died by her hand years ago.”

Ying Fusheng looked up, his eyes burning. For a moment he seemed to go blank. “I… I didn’t know.”

The Emperor looked at him. Hatred would be the natural response for anyone. Even within the imperial family, brothers had slaughtered each other to seize the throne. He had thought this child too timid, clinging to excuses for a mother who had poisoned him.

“The world beyond the palace is vast. Your imperial brothers come and go as they please, riding freely through mountains and rivers. At your age, you should be making your mark on the training ground. But you cannot be well. You wear thick robes in spring. Exertion leaves you breathless. None of this should have been your life.” The Emperor’s tone softened without him noticing. “If she had never poisoned you, you would be living without a care.”

The Emperor glanced to one side, his gaze passing over the desk not far away. The coursework was closed, but a letter lay open beside it.

Ying Fusheng’s fingertips trembled faintly. The Emperor walked unhurriedly to the desk, scanned the letter’s contents, and his expression did not change. He folded it gently closed. “Your grandfather’s letter. The sentiment is quite sincere.”

“You wish to accompany your mother to a temple to recuperate. Your grandfather’s letter does not quite share that view.” The Emperor looked at him. He had always thought this child guileless, but now he saw that Consort Ning had shaped him into someone timid. “You were born a prince. That sets you apart from ordinary people. There are those who will rely on you, and those who will use you.”

Ying Fusheng went still.

The Emperor’s voice eased. “Those who rely on you deserve to be judged on their merits. Those who use you deserve to be used in return.”

Ying Fusheng’s gaze shifted. He had not expected his Imperial Father to say any of this.

“You have few people around you and no guards. After this, I will choose a few to stay by your side. No one will harm you again.” The Emperor bent slightly and finally reached out to help him up. “Rise. There is no need to plead for her any further.”

The mention of guards caught Ying Fusheng off guard for a moment. His Imperial Father’s temperament was not the kind to do something like this. Before he could think it through, the Emperor’s palm came to rest on his forehead. The hand was large, but the touch was unexpectedly gentle. His body gave an involuntary shudder, his pupils shifting slightly, but it lasted only an instant before he brought himself back under control.

“This filial devotion of yours is enough,” the Emperor said, smoothing the loose strands of hair back from his forehead. “I will arrange where she goes. For now, your only task is to recover.”

The physicians had been waiting outside, ready at a moment’s notice. Eunuch Rong called in a few attendants to help the Sixth Prince rest, and a physician came in to take his pulse and administer needles to help him sleep. The Sixth Prince’s condition had already been poor that day, and too much emotional strain would only make things worse. The matter of Consort Ning had been kept from him all along. A few needles, and he gradually drifted off.

The Emperor did not leave. He stayed and watched him rest until his breathing slowed.

“Your Majesty, the Sixth Prince is asleep,” the physician said quietly, and withdrew.

The Emperor’s gaze lingered on the sleeping Ying Fusheng. He realized, somewhat belatedly, that he had spent far too much time on this child today.

Eunuch Rong stood at the Emperor’s side, waiting for instructions, when he suddenly heard the Emperor say, “When I tried to comfort him, he was afraid.”

That small tremor had been quickly suppressed, but to an Emperor who had trained in martial arts for years, it was nearly impossible to hide. And it was not the first time. At the palace banquet, when he called the child closer, and at the Wangyue Pavilion, when he had drawn near, there had been a change in the boy’s breathing. But a touch to the forehead was an intimate gesture, and Ying Fusheng had reined in his fear quickly. For him, that flinching was something bred into the bone.

He was a prince, raised in comfort and privilege. What could have made him afraid like that?

Eunuch Rong had been at the Emperor’s side for many years and understood at once that the Emperor was speaking of Consort Ning.

Ying Fusheng’s medical records had all been placed before the Emperor. Once the Suihongzi was confirmed, Physician Chu’s thorough examination established that the poisoning had almost certainly begun in infancy. The poison had worked its way into his organs over years. Constant exposure to the toxin meant that headaches, nausea, and similar symptoms had likely become routine. Even an adult would have struggled to endure such effects. Ying Fusheng had grown up with them, and they had become ordinary to him.

He seemed perfectly normal. He was slow to register pain. He treated nightmares as an afterthought.

Had the physician not asked carefully, no one would have known what he had been silently enduring all this time. Even the physicians treating him could barely stand to hear it. When this young child was being corroded by poison, when he had nearly not survived on more than one occasion, how had Consort Ning hardened her heart and stood by and done nothing?

‘Beyond the physical weakness the Suihongzi has caused, this physician fears it may have damaged the Sixth Prince’s mind.’ Physician Chu’s report echoed in the Emperor’s ears. Every word in the medical record was alarming. ‘Going forward, the Sixth Prince may not be as sharp as the other princes. Unusual behavior is to be expected. We will do our best to draw out the remaining poison… but the damage already done cannot be undone.’

Physician Chu had found that the child had grown numb to his own suffering.

Ying Fusheng’s sleep was not peaceful. As the Emperor prepared to leave, he shifted restlessly toward the edge of the bed. When the Emperor’s hand drew close, he curled in on himself carefully, drawing his limbs inward, as though only by making himself small could he feel any safety.

“A simple soul after all…” The Emperor looked down at his unsettled form. “Leave someone to watch him. Call the physician if needed.”

“As for the one who carried the Ning family’s letter in,” the Emperor said, his tone even, “you may deal with him.”

* * *

The Emperor stayed at the Cining Palace for a long time, and the entire inner palace knew it. After the Imperial Garden incident, this was the Emperor’s first visit to the Cining Palace, and he stayed for so long. Afterward he called for the physician, and the physicians who had been stationed at the Cining Palace these past days were beyond counting. Even Eunuch Rong had made several trips back and forth.

In the inner palace, Empress Xu at the Kunning Palace heard the news and sent things over to the Cining Palace.

The Emperor and Empress’s attitudes gave the consorts much to think about.

Certain pieces of information began to leak out.

“Vice Minister Ning really sent a letter into the palace?” Noble Consort Yun said, surprised.

The palace maid said, “Yes. The Sixth Prince was set on seeking treatment for Consort Ning and even pleaded for her before His Majesty. Afterward he apparently fainted, and His Majesty then called the physicians to treat him.”

“This servant has heard that the Sixth Prince’s condition may never fully recover. The Suihongzi is a potent poison. An adult exposed for that many years would likely lose their mind, let alone the Sixth Prince, who was so young when it entered his system. After His Majesty learned of this, he ordered the physicians not to speak of it, and no medical records were kept.”

The palace maid left the rest unsaid, and Noble Consort Yun understood.

If the poison had reached his organs, it had reached his mind as well.

Even if the Sixth Prince recovered, he might not be as sharp as before.

Noble Consort Yun thought back to Consort Ning’s behavior at the Huguo Temple. She found it strange even then. Looking back now, Consort Ning’s aversion to the child had run very deep indeed. She had heard of this kind of hysteria before, but for it to drive someone to such cruelty toward a child, Consort Ning was the first she had encountered. “Truly pitiable,” she said. “To have a mother like that.”

“And he still pleaded for her.”

What no one had expected was that the Sixth Prince would be so earnest. When everyone already accepted that Consort Ning was beyond saving, he alone kept his filial devotion intact, thinking only of this wicked mother, even seeking treatment on her behalf. His eyes had seen nothing but her, and he missed every hint the Ning family had been sending.

Everyone else was focused on Consort Ning’s madness. Vice Minister Ning’s letter had been designed to move the Sixth Prince, every line carefully crafted to draw him to the Ning family’s side. The Ning family were not fools. They knew the Emperor would punish Consort Ning severely. In that situation, sending the letter was clearly a way to use the Sixth Prince to make a show before the Emperor, hoping to leverage whatever standing the Sixth Prince had in the Emperor’s eyes to secure a path forward for the Ning family.

After all, the Sixth Prince was innocent. The Emperor would naturally think of what the boy would need in the years ahead.

“Just as His Majesty said…” Noble Consort Yun dismissed the palace maid and sent part of the news out to the First Prince beyond the palace walls, murmuring to herself, “Then we wait and see how His Majesty deals with the Ning family.”

With the Emperor and Empress both showing their hand, the consorts could not help but speculate. Before they had finished working out what the various parties intended, the Emperor had already issued a decree. The edict condemned Consort Ning’s conduct in the harshest terms ever used in such a document, stripping her of her rank and sending her to the Wutong Hall, from which she was forbidden to leave without imperial order.

The Emperor considered the Sixth Prince and had not ordered Consort Ning’s immediate execution.

But the Wutong Hall was no ordinary place. Among the consorts of the inner palace, it was known as a place that existed since the previous Emperor’s reign, situated in the coldest and most desolate part of the palace, surrounded by overgrown weeds, used over the years to confine consorts who had committed serious offenses.

Since the current Emperor’s ascension, no consort had ever been punished so severely. Being sent to the Wutong Hall meant complete isolation from the world. The edict mentioned the Sixth Prince’s filial devotion, and stated that out of consideration for Consort Ning having borne the Sixth Prince, the Emperor would permit a physician to attend her daily. She was forbidden from seeing anyone other than the Sixth Prince.

That might fool the Sixth Prince, but it could not fool the sharp-eyed people of the inner palace. Consort Ning had been sent to the cold palace. Whatever treatment she received, it amounted to lifelong imprisonment. Whether she lived or died was entirely at the Emperor’s discretion. For what she had done, she disgraced the imperial family in a way without precedent. Once inside that place, she could only wait to die.

Of the consorts who had entered the Wutong Hall, some had died, some had gone mad. None had come to a good end.

The punishment sent a chill through every consort in the palace.

“Consort Ning is finished.”

“And the Sixth Prince… now that Consort Ning has come to this, won’t His Majesty need to make arrangements for him?”

The consorts’ minds began to stir.

The Emperor was occupied with court affairs and rarely visited the inner palace. No new children had been born in the palace in recent years, and every consort had her eye on the Sixth Prince. He was still young, currently cherished by both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, and had suffered at his own mother’s hands. A child like that needed a foster mother most of all.

By palace custom, when an imperial child lost his mother or when a consort fell from grace, any young children in her care would be transferred to another consort to raise. When the Eighth Prince’s birth mother died young, the Empress had taken him in.

Before the Emperor had even issued an order, consorts had already been quietly probing the situation at the Cining Palace for days. Noble Consort Yun went so far as to visit the Cining Palace openly to pay her respects and brought a great many things for the Sixth Prince. Once she made her move, the other consorts were not far behind, each making her own quiet show of interest.

The Empress had already taken in the Eighth Prince years ago. Noble Consort Yun had two sons of her own. There were suitable consorts in the palace, but entrusting the child to any one of them was a difficult decision.

Then, within a few days, the Emperor issued his order: the Sixth Prince was to take up permanent residence at the Cining Palace, to be raised by the Empress Dowager.

The decree surprised not only the inner palace but the court as well. Given the Sixth Prince’s age, he still needed the support of a maternal family. No one had expected the Emperor to place him with the Empress Dowager.

While the outside world buzzed with talk over Consort Ning’s punishment and the question of who would raise the prince, the Empress Dowager issued her own order: no rumors or gossip were to enter the Cining Palace.

No one dared raise the matter before Ying Fusheng. Not even the news of Consort Ning’s confinement and subsequent breakdown reached the Sixth Prince’s ears.

Ying Fusheng only learned of it from Song’an after waking that day, and heard too that the Emperor had not left until later.

In everyone else’s eyes, he was supposed to be a picture of filial devotion, and too timid to do anything but plead. When the Ning family’s letter arrived, he had known his Imperial Father would come. What happened afterward, however, had not been entirely within his calculations.

The heart of an emperor was difficult to read. In two lifetimes, he had only ever been able to guess at his Imperial Father’s intentions.

Given his Imperial Father’s temperament, there was no possibility of Consort Ning being spared after harming the imperial line. The outcome had been fixed.

Whether he pleaded or not would not change his Imperial Father’s mind, but it could be put to use.

His Imperial Father was decisive and would grow suspicious even of a half-grown child, let alone all the sudden developments surrounding this affair. His dear grandfather had been riding high at court lately, and now that disaster had struck, there was no shortage of people eager to bury the Ning family. With Consort Ning’s downfall, Vice Minister Ning could not possibly risk approaching the Crown Prince’s faction. His only option was Ying Fusheng.

Sending that letter had landed squarely on his Imperial Father’s most sensitive nerve.

For a prince, a powerful maternal family and close ties to them made him a target for imperial suspicion. But a prince with no maternal backing and a frail constitution… the situation was entirely different.

“Your Highness, should I put some of these books away too?” Song’an asked.

Ying Fusheng came back to himself. He looked over to where Aunt Yu was directing several attendants in carrying things in. The side hall was not large, yet they were gradually filling it. This was the Empress Dowager’s doing.

He prepared himself for the possibility that his Imperial Father might place him with another consort, in which case he would have refused on the grounds of Consort Ning. He had not expected the Empress Dowager to step forward and keep him herself.

The Empress Dowager had excused him from his morning greetings and told him to rest in his quarters and recover these past days.

He had barely seen her, yet the side hall bore her instructions everywhere.

Ying Fusheng set aside the uncertainty in his eyes. “This is enough.”

“There are still some of Your Highness’s things at the Weiyang Palace. Aunt Yu has already sent people to bring them over,” Song’an said, going about it all with considerable enthusiasm.

Ying Fusheng found he couldn’t argue with any of them, so he said nothing.

He watched the people in the hall bustle about for a long while, until the sky outside had gone dark and they finally withdrew.

“Things go out of date in a couple of years,” Ying Fusheng said.

Song’an said, “Aunt Yu says a prince should have everything a prince ought to have. From now on, the Cining Palace will have a young Highness living here permanently.”

A faint flush crossed Ying Fusheng’s face. He had been playing the role of a child for so long that he genuinely could not respond to that with the ease it deserved. “I’m not that young.”

“Hmm?” Song’an said.

Ying Fusheng did not answer. He looked at the newly changed bedding for a long moment without coming back to himself.

It was just a set of bedding. Why did it feel so strange to him? How odd.

Song’an and the others withdrew soon after, leaving Ying Fusheng to rest undisturbed.

He finished his medicine and was about to lie down when he stopped.

“Your Highness, the people His Majesty sent have arrived,” a palace attendant called from outside.

* * *

The Emperor had assigned guards to the Sixth Prince. Among the princes, only the Eastern Palace had guards appointed directly by the Emperor. The other princes’ attendants were generally of their own choosing.

In Noble Consort Yun’s quarters, the news arrived while she was arranging flowers. She paused at the attendant’s report, her expression shifting slightly. “He sent guards to the Sixth Prince… His Majesty truly does favor him.”

“There is no need to rush. Simply pass this along to my son.” duskblossoms | translated by adeline

“The one who should be worried is not us,” Noble Consort Yun said. “It’s the Crown Prince. Once the First Prince hears, he will know what to do.”

Word that the Emperor had personally assigned two guards to the Sixth Prince spread quickly through the inner palace and even reached the court. The whole court was watching the Ning family’s downfall. Vice Minister Ning had been so prominent before the disaster, praised by colleagues, spoken of as the likely successor to the Minister of Rites.

The Shen family had been worried about the Sixth Prince’s situation in the palace. When the Emperor’s assignment of guards was announced, Shen Changcun let out a breath of relief. He had known since the military provisions case that the prince  and the Ning family were not on good terms, and the Ning family had made things difficult for him at court on more than one occasion. The letter the Sixth Prince sent after the military provisions case had saved the Shen family, and it had also made everything clear to Shen Changcun.

“In the coming days, when you visit the palace, show your concern for His Highness and nothing more. Do not overreach,” Shen Changcun instructed.

Shen Yunfei paused. “And on His Highness’s end…”

“Don’t worry,” Shen Changcun said. “His Highness will have his own way of handling this.”

The Shen family kept a low profile, but many officials at court had turned their attention to the Sixth Prince. He had not been placed with another consort but with the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager was the Empress Dowager, but the clan behind her was a powerful one. The Xiao clan had already produced one emperor. If the Sixth Prince were to contend for the throne, the Xiao clan might well support another.

While officials at court were still discussing this, Hu Buyu noticed the Shen family’s quiet movements and listened to the talk around him, falling into thought.

Now that the Sixth Prince had been placed with the Empress Dowager, the Ning family was finished.

The Emperor’s decision to assign guards to the Sixth Prince put the court on alert. Not long after, someone at the Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial impeaching Vice Minister Ning, citing past errors in his handling of official duties.

After Consort Ning’s disgrace, the Emperor used it as grounds to punish the Ning family severely.

Consort Ning had committed her crimes, and the Emperor had assigned guards to the Sixth Prince. The old foxes of the court understood perfectly well what this meant. The Emperor was clearly separating the Sixth Prince from the Ning family, and understandably so. With a woman like that poisoning a prince, how could the Emperor feel no resentment toward the Ning family?

Before the Emperor had even moved to deal with the Ning family, others were already moving against them.

The fire that had originally been aimed at the Minister of Rites spread to the Ning family. Vice Minister Ning could barely keep himself afloat, and on top of that he faced pressure from the First Prince’s faction, which was eager to use the chaos to prop up the Minister of Rites. Gradually, new word spread through the court that both the Minister of Rites and the Vice Minister were corrupt, and that both had engaged in misconduct.

duskblossoms | translated by adeline

The Ning family scrambled desperately for a way out and found none. Someone filed an impeachment, and the Emperor stripped Vice Minister Ning of his position on the spot. Other members of the Ning family’s collateral branches in the court were caught up in the fallout as well, dismissed or demoted as appropriate. In the past, the Emperor had never reacted so furiously to the Ning family’s missteps. This time, everyone understood: the Ning family was finished.

The Crown Prince was deep in his studies when the news reached him. His brush slipped, and ink spread in a wide blot across the page. His Imperial Father had assigned guards to the Sixth Prince. Why did he deserve that kind of treatment from their Imperial Father?

The talk about Consort Ning had been everywhere these past days. His Imperial Father had always disliked timid behavior in a prince. As a member of the imperial family, the Sixth Prince had nothing to recommend him beyond a streak of guileless sincerity that their Imperial Father had praised. In every other respect, he could not even match Little Eight. Why did he deserve such exceptional favor?

“Your Highness is tired. Rest for today,” a voice said from beside him.

The Crown Prince’s hand stilled. His heart gave a small lurch. He looked up to find an elderly man walking in through the door. It was none other than Grand Secretary Xu!