Chapter 8 Three Promises
On the fourth day, the Empress summoned me.
She had already learned last night that the emperor meant to send Li Yuankuo on an eastern campaign. He would leave after the new year, without even waiting for his capping ceremony.
When I saw her, she looked much older.
I had a feeling that only now did it truly reach her. In her husband's heart there had only ever been imperial power, never the affection of a husband or a father.
Her adopted son was already the Crown Prince, and even he could not escape the fate of becoming a hostage.
Her own child was merely one among more than a dozen sons of the Great Zhou emperor. Besides her, who would care?
She asked me, "How do you wish to cooperate?"
I answered, "I am willing to be Imperial Mother's eyes and ears. If Imperial Mother takes action, I will report everything that happens in the Eastern Palace."
Information was the key to victory, and also the hardest thing to obtain.
She seemed to understand that. She asked again, "What do you want from me?"
I stroked my belly. "I beg Imperial Mother to grant me three things.
"First, if Lady Xu Liuyi becomes pregnant in the future, Imperial Mother must see that her child is born safely.
"Second, when Prince Huan inherits the throne, please hand the Crown Prince to me to deal with.
"Third, abolish the law of The Son Is Honored, the Mother Dies."
She looked at me in silence for a long time. "Very well. I promise you."
After I returned to the Eastern Palace, Suyue told me in a low voice, "This servant has already found the secret medicine."
I was surprised. "So quickly?"
She answered, "This servant went straight to check the medicinal meals, just as you said, and indeed found several special herbs. After asking the people who prepared the meals, this servant learned they put them into your porridge on the tenth day of every month.
"This servant used those herbs to make pills according to the ancient texts. Lady of Excellence, please smell them. Have you ever caught this scent?"
I took the pills. At once a fishy, sweet smell rushed into my nose, and I remembered. After my monthly courses ended on the tenth of every month, the porridge Li Yuancheng made me drink had this same smell.
It matched now.
And I also knew the medicine only worked if taken after the monthly courses ended.
I asked her what herbs the medicine was made from.
Her expression turned strange. "Lady of Excellence, it is better that you do not know."
I did not ask further.
I supposed it was nothing good.
Suyue was truly clever. Being a lowly medical maid was a waste of her talent.
When Fourth Elder Brother returned from Jinling, I would make sure he met her.
Now that I had the medicine, I only waited for Xu Liuyi's monthly courses to end.
I checked Xu Liuyi's meals, and finally decided to add the herbs to the sweet soup she liked most.
On the day her courses ended, I heard she ate two bowls of the sweet soup, and even praised that it tasted better than before.
Back then I had only found it fishy.
I had swallowed it again and again only because Li Yuancheng said it tasted good, and I could not bear to disappoint him.
That night, lightning flashed and thunder rolled.
Xu Liuyi's palace maid came to invite Li Yuancheng over, saying she had been frightened.
Li Yuancheng went. He did not return until morning.
In the morning I sat before the mirror and dressed my hair, calculating that once Xu Liuyi's pregnancy was stable, I would make the child in my belly disappear.
In my last life I had watched that child grow to ten years old, but I had no affection for him.
Li Yuancheng and Xu Liuyi had raised him cold and heartless.
After Fourth Elder Brother died, Second Elder Sister had found him and told him I had been murdered. She hoped that when he grew up he would clear my name, and she warned him not to tell anyone else.
He turned around and told Li Yuancheng and Xu Liuyi at once.
Li Yuancheng summoned the little terror and Second Elder Sister into the palace and scolded them harshly.
My Second Elder Sister had the gentlest nature, yet she rebuked Li Yuancheng to his face for his heartlessness, then drove her head into a pillar and died to cry injustice for me.
From then on, not a single person of our Xie family remained.
That night Li Yuancheng asked the child, "She was your own aunt. Do you regret telling Father these things?"
The child said coldly, "This subject does not regret it."
If this child were born and grew up, another innocent girl would die in the future.
So I would let it all end with me.