NOTE: This novel is currently a TEASER, I wanted to get at least 1 chapter up so I could submit the series on NovelUpdates. I am not officially picking it up since I am working on another project and have not yet finished the original novel.
Chapter 1: n.o.ble Consort The nights of late spring were not as cold as before.
The imperial city, Huai Jing, was a sh.o.r.e town located in the Jiangnan region. Once it reached summer, it would be unbearably hot. Though it was only late spring, the heat was already a bit oppressive at night.
Jin Li carried a palace lantern, walking through the East Shade Path at a steady pace. Entering the East four palaces through the Yaoguang Gate, the Tai"a palace path was right inside. After exiting the Tai"a path was the Mo"xie path going from north to south, mirroring the West four palaces" main path from far away.
To the west of the Mo"xie path was four palace halls. The largest among these was Jian Jia Palace, which was also Jin Li"s current destination.
The hour was already late, but Jian Jia Palace"s side door was still open. A well-trained junior eunuch respectfully waited by the door, not taking Jin Li"s arrival as an unusual occurrence. He silently bowed his greetings, then walked ahead a step to lead the way for her.
"Has guifei-niangniang been well these last few days?" Jin Li asked in a low voice, her voice smiling before her face. To hear her speak was like being bathed in a spring breeze, incredibly comfortable.
The junior eunuch did not lift his head, but responded quietly, "Honorable lady should take care, my lady has been unwell as of late."
As they spoke, they had already arrived before the main palace hall.
Though she had not seen the junior eunuch ask anyone to announce their presence along the way, Jian Jia Palace"s senior palace maid Man Chen had long arrived in front of the palace hall, waiting to receive this senior palace maid under the Emperor, Jin Li.
"Miss Jin Li." Man Chen greeted her, then said, "My lady has already taken her tea and gone to bed."
Jin Li slightly narrowed her eyes. "It looks like I came at a bad time."
Man Chen neither acknowledged nor denied this statement, only maintaining a wooden face to suggest, "Miss Jin Li must also be tired walking late at night, why not enter the East Warm Pavilion to rest for a while?"
Speaking, she moved aside to invite Jin Li into the palace hall.
In the moment Jin Li lifted her foot, she turned to look at the darkened sky. Tonight, there was no moon.
–
The Imperial Palace, front palace, Fengshen Tower.
A black shadow silently flitted past, landing lightly on one of Fengshen Tower"s nine G.o.dly statues. She hid in the shadows, and no one discovered her.
Shen Yuqing tugged at the rim of her hat, burying her face further in its depths.
The western region"s Manichean disciples were the kings of killing in the great desert. They excelled in the skills of evasion, concealment, and a.s.sa.s.sination. Now, forced into the middle of the Jiangnan imperial city, though she was a bit unused to the conditions, it was at least something novel to explore.
Shen Yuqing flicked her hand, a length of chain about the thickness of a thumb shooting out, catching firmly on the edge of a nearby eave with only a faint noise. Before it could attract the attention of the guards, Shen Yuqing had already retracted the chain. She shot out like an arrow to dart up onto the eaves in a split second, then with a light tap of a colored gla.s.s bottle, disappeared without a trace.
This was the Manichean qinggong technique, golden rainbow attacking palace hall.
As a former base three game NPC, Shen Yuqing had G.o.dly qinggong skills, nothing ordinary players could ever hope to compare to. And, she had her good friend Pao-jie help her remodel the chain, or else so thin a chain could never withstand such a forceful pull.
Shen Yuqing quickly pa.s.sed the Eastern Palace and the West harem"s Su Mei Palace, jumping into Jian Jia Palace from the eaves of Xian Lü Palace, then flipping through the rear window to arrive in the sleeping hall.
The senior palace maid Man Xing had already been waiting for a long time.
"My lady." Half-kneeling, Man Xing helped Shen Yuqing change her clothes.
Though they were a.s.sa.s.sins, Manichean disciples did not like nightwear, but instead favored broad white robes. Though it was easy to be exposed, it made them seem outstanding and unique.
Man Xing helped the n.o.ble Consort remove her white robes. She did not touch the agility wear underneath, instead retreiving a set of inner robes and an outer robe to drape over her, then pulling her hair into a simple casual bun.
"What is it?" Raising her eyebrow, Shen Yuqing removed the bracer on her left forearm.
Wearing an outer robe in the middle of the night, did she need to greet a guest?
Man Xing covered her mouth and laughed lightly, "The Emperor"s servant, Jin Li-jiejie, has come."
She was probably here to urge her lady to "recover" a bit faster.
Come to think of it, it had already been a month since the n.o.ble Consort started to refuse to go out, claiming sickness. The Emperor should have been unhappy by now.
Shen Yuqing expected this.
She and the Emperor had made a pact. She would help deal with those women in the harem who didn"t know their place, and the Emperor would allow her to do whatever she liked. Even if she slipped out every night to go and play, as long as she arrived on time when she was supposed to arrive and conscientiously attacked the women she was supposed to attack, the Emperor would not attempt to restrain her at all. Not only would he not restrain her, he would even open doors to make her life easier.
But, Shen Yuqing had not done any work for a month.
Shen Yuqing would not have taken any work like this, but the Emperor had promised her millions of taels of gold, as well as the protection of power, power to let her trample over the great feast of life. As a new bodily transmigrator who didn"t understand anything, who had accidentally let go a jianghu n.o.ble Consort escaping marriage, Shen Yuqing decided to agree to this arrangement.
So, she had replaced that n.o.ble Consort who had the same name and face as her, and "married" into the Imperial Palace.
It had already been a year since that day.
That real n.o.ble Consort had already gone off to rest and fly together with the one she loved, maybe a child had already been born.
Of course, the most important reason was that the imperial palace had first-rate cat food and beautiful women, these were both the things Shen Yuqing liked the most.
She casually handed the bracer to Man Xing, stroking the kitty sleeping soundly in a nest by her side, utterly content.
And then.
She couldn"t resist moving over, rubbing her cheek on the kitty"s body.
Impatient, the cat His Highness swiped at her face with his little claws, pushing her away.
Interrupting this cat"s sleep, so annoying.
Shen-guifei did not mind her cat"s indifference. She kissed his little claws, then, with Man Xing"s coughs in the background, calmly stood up and arranged her clothes, leisurely walking outside. She should go see that Jin Li, this person was not so easy to deal with.
Upon entering the East Warm Pavilion, Jin Li stood up and greeted her.
"Wishing guifei-niangniang ten thousand fortunes and golden peace."
Shen Yuqing sat at the head of the room. "Miss Jin Li, why have you come so late at night?"
Looks like the Emperor was quite unhappy.
Most of the time, when he sent Jin Li to relay a message, he would parade her ostentatiously in the middle of the day, eager to announce his "favor" towards the n.o.ble Consort to all under the heavens. Afterwards, all the women in the harem would get riled up and start furiously attacking Shen Yuqing, hoping to pull this most favored n.o.ble Consort off her high horse.
Unfortunately, the love between the n.o.ble Consort and the Emperor was more solid than gold, and none of them could incite disharmony between the two.
Last time, there was a self-important little guiren, who, having been favored by the Emperor, had spoken a few sour words about the n.o.ble Consort, and was sent straight to the Cold Palace.
To make a joke of it, the Emperor had not spent so much money and yielded so much to keep her to let these women offend Shen Yuqing. Shen Yuqing was very useful, so it was best not to anger her. Or else, that Manichean boss who could arrive without a shadow and leave without a trace would put him and her to death within the minute.
The truth was, out of all those secret guards the Emperor had groomed, not a one could defeat Shen Yuqing. No, he should say, once the fight began, they could not even hope to find Shen Yuqing"s shadow.
Jin Li, as well as the entirety of Jian Jia Palace, were all people who knew about the Emperor and Shen Yuqing"s arrangement. The maids and eunuchs of Jian Jia Palace, especially, were trusted servants the Emperor had appointed in the first place, but now…
Shen yuqing stroked the venomous insect tattoo on her wrist that would only appear when a special concoction was applied, and smiled, but did not speak.
Many thanks to her good friend Du-jie"s "selfless gift" (stolen by Shen Yuqing) of this venomous insect. With these little guys, she had changed most of Jian Jia Palace"s personnel to her own subordinates, no need to worry about betrayal. She only left a few chess pieces inserted by the other concubines, waiting to see if they would be of use in the future.
Jin Li stood in the center of the Warm Pavilion, and slowly lifted her head to look straight at Shen Yuqing. "My Lady has been sick for a long time. His Majesty was very worried, so he sent this servant to check on you."
Shen Yuqing lifted up a cup of tea and took a sip. "Many thanks to His Majesty. This master has been sick and unable to go out, how are things in the palace?"
Seeing Shen Yuqing follow along, Jin Li let out a held breath.
As long as the n.o.ble Consort cooperated, all was good. If she refused to continue her work under pain of death, a palace maid with "feeble" martial arts would have no way to do anything to her.
"Everything is peaceful in the palace, but shufei-niangniang has recently gotten a pet. Perhaps it could play together with His Highness."
--En, that"s right, that fraudulent Shen Yuqing named her kitty "His Highness".
Everyone silently ridiculed her for it, but even the Emperor gave his tacit permission, so no one dared voice their objections.
After finishing what she came to say, Jin Li quickly gave her goodbyes.
Shen Yuqing"s long and slender fingers tapped softly on the table. Her fingernails were not as ridiculously long as the fingernails of the other women in the palace, only a little bit, but manicured very well. They were dyed with light red cardamom, very good-looking on her scallion-pale fingertips, and the color was not too aggressive.
Shen Yuqing did not want to dye them at first. His Highness liked to lick her fingertips, and she was afraid cardamom would be bad for cats. But, she later discovered that her Persian cat was created from game data, entirely different from normal cats and not nearly as delicate, so she could be more at ease.
As a woman in the harem, not wearing makeup, not wearing beautiful clothes, not dyeing her fingernails, and not wearing jewelry would make her look like a freak. After being looked at with odd glances by a crowd of women for almost half a month, she finally gave that little bit.
"My Lady." Man Xing carried up a cup of warm yogurt. "Drink it while it"s hot, then you can rest."
Shen Yuqing took it and carelessly poured it down her throat in one gulp, Man Xing staring at her with wide eyes. Her lady always tried to chug wine and tear meat with her hands, it really was impossible to deal with her.
Shen Yuqing did not mind her glare. Putting down the bowl, she casually asked, "Are there any activities in the palace tomorrow?"
If not, she would have to crawl out of bed in the early morning to pay her respects to the Empress.
The Emperor had sent people to urge her many times already, Shen Yuqing could not keep lazing around. And, this time, both the text and subtext of Jin Li"s words were asking her to deal with the shufei, this was the main task at hand and she could not delay.
Maybe this shufei-niangniang"s maternal family had offended the Emperor in the previous dynasty, and the Emperor wanted to give them this stab in the back.
"Tomorrow afternoon, the Empress will hold a flower appreciation gathering in the Imperial Gardens, the early lotuses in the Taiye pond have flowered." Man Xing thought, then spoke.
Shen Yuqing immediately responded, "This master will go to the flower appreciation gathering. Remember to make preparations."
"Yes." Man Xing immediately replied.
Thinking of the shufei"s unlucky face, Shen Yuqing smiled at her misfortune, beginning to consider how she would attack her tomorrow.
This woman twittered on every day, acting weak and delicate, wiping tears at the drop of a hat, a very good white lotus act. Unfortunately, Shen Yuqing hated fake white lotuses the most. She had lost many things at the hands of people like that.
She could not defeat that white lotus she had encountered before, but now, she could deal with this one vigorously. She had finally made it to when the Emperor would give her the chance to attack the shufei fair and aboveboard. Before, she could only p.r.i.c.k her a few times with her words and it really was not satisfying enough, but now, Shen Yuqing did not need to control herself anymore.
Notes:
This chapter was translated by Lily. Names names names! 沈雨晴 (shen3 yu3 qing2), "clear rain", 淮京 (huai2 jing1), lit. "river capital". 瑾璃 (jin3 li2), lit. "brilliant colored gla.s.s". [do the random roads matter?] 蒹葭 (jian1 jia1), "reeds", 满辰 (man3 chen2), "full dawn", 奉神 (feng4 shen2), "deity worshipping", 夙寐 (su4 mei4), "morning sleep", 仙缕 (xian1 lü3), "immortal thread", 满星 (man3 xing1), "full star". 娘娘 (niang2 niang), "My lady", is a form of address for imperial concubines. It can be attached to the end of a t.i.tle (e.g. guifei-niangniang = My Lady the n.o.ble Consort) or as a standalone term. I plan to use pinyin for the former case (to avoid super long t.i.tles everywhere) and translate it into English as "my lady" for the latter, but both are equivalent. As this is a harem intrigue novel, there is a ranking system for all the women. This wikipedia article describes some imperial harem ranking systems in China"s past, I do not think this novel follows any one of them exactly, but it seems to be the closest to the Tang dynasty"s system. It is quite confusing, so I can write up a ranking/character guide and update as it goes along if I do continue with this novel. Of the characters who have been mentioned so far, the Empress/huanghou is highest, followed by the n.o.ble Consort/guifei, then the shufei. From shufei down there seem to be no standard English translations of the t.i.tles so I plan to stick to pinyin, 淑妃 (shu1 fei1) roughly translates to the "Fair Consort". "Agility wear": 劲装 (jin4 zhuang1), lit. "energy clothing", a type of clothing in wuxia fantasy that a.s.sists in ease of movement. I am not sure if His Highness is a male or female cat because Chinese is very cagey about p.r.o.nouns so I just sorta picked, apologizing in advance if I have to change a ton of stuff in the future. The "Cold Palace": being sent to the 冷宫 (leng3 gong1) is a thing in literature where a monarch will banish a wife or concubine who falls out of favor, it can also mean the figurative "doghouse". "This master": 本宫 (ben3 gong1), is a form of self-address that can be used by someone who is the master of a palace. Practically, it is used by the Empress and high-ranked concubines who have their own palaces, crown princes, and adult princesses.