Chapter Eighty-Seven: Today I’ll Show You What It Means to Clear One’s Name

The palace guards and the steward of the kitchens, too—aren’t they all Your Majesty the Empress’s own trusted people?

Shen Fuyu pressed forward step by step until she stood close before Empress Jing Lanxi. Of course Jing Lanxi was no easy opponent. Ever since she first entered the palace, Shen Fuyu had understood that this woman was capable enough to force Qin Zhiyi to bear the stigma of bringing ill fortune upon his wives, bold enough to carry on secret affairs in the harem, and shrewd enough to seize control of the entire inner court in her own hands. Jing Lanxi would not be so easily dealt with.

Jing Lanxi’s eyes were wild with fury as she clenched her teeth and stared fixedly at Shen Fuyu. That wretch—when had she laid this trap? How had she slipped in so silently?

“Your Majesty the Empress, you wouldn’t accuse me out of jealousy and conspire with your underlings to slander me, would you?” Shen Fuyu said with feigned anguish, looking heartbroken. “I know I’m not exactly the sort of person anyone likes, but I really was unwell today and so could not come to pay my respects. Must you make such a huge matter of it? If you are displeased, I can kneel and beg your pardon. Why go to such lengths to set up such a clumsy scheme? Do you mean to drive me and my child to our deaths?”

She wept bitterly, but with her face averted from the Empress Dowager, she smiled toward Jing Lanxi. Go on, be angry. Go on, rage. You think you are so clever, so calculating, and that means you can make her swallow her anger? Impossible. How naive.

Jing Lanxi had stormed off in the middle of smashing the door, and Shen Fuyu had already understood then. This woman was nothing like an idiot such as Noble Consort Shu, who could be provoked for half a day by the slightest trick. Shen Fuyu might as well set the whole thing up directly: force her way out on purpose, make a scene on purpose, and wait on purpose for Jing Lanxi to come rushing in, convinced she had caught a weakness.

Then she would watch with her own eyes as Shen Fuyu turned black into white and threw the accusation back in her face.

Sigh. Clearing her name was a little brain-consuming. Everything else was simple enough.

For instance, that pile of anger points had already quietly climbed to level forty-two.

“Please let the Empress Dowager pass judgment.” While Jing Lanxi was still searching for a way to respond, Shen Fuyu simply threw the matter back to the Empress Dowager. “I know my words were somewhat disrespectful, and I am willing to accept punishment.”

The Empress Dowager felt as though she had struck cotton with a fist. She wanted to punish someone severely, but there was nothing she could do. As Shen Fuyu had said, if she truly exaggerated the matter and pinned a false charge on her, the outside world would no doubt begin to wonder all kinds of things, which would surely unsettle both officials and commoners. Moreover, Shen Fuyu came from the Shen family.

“Empress, what do you have to say for yourself?” The Empress Dowager turned to Jing Lanxi. In truth, she privately did not believe Jing Lanxi would frame Shen Fuyu over such a minor matter, but there was no helping it. Once this spread, the charge of an empress framing a consort was easier for people to believe than a consort making a scene in the imperial palace. Even if that was not the truth, it could no longer be otherwise now.

“I... have nothing to say.” Jing Lanxi gritted her teeth. By now, nothing she said would help. It was only natural that the people had been drawn under her control. If they had to say it this way, then she had no way to defend herself. “Only... I never intended to kill Noble Consort Xian and her child.”

Perhaps not before. But from this moment on, she did.

Jing Lanxi’s gaze was icy. In all these years, this was the first time someone had made her suffer such a setback. Shen Fuyu that wretch truly could not be underestimated.

“Then so be it. Since the Empress harbors jealousy toward Noble Consort Xian and abused her authority to frame her, let the imperial seal be withdrawn for now and handed to Noble Consort Shu. From this day forward, all matters of the inner court shall also be managed by Noble Consort Shu. The Empress should spend this time reflecting on her faults.”

Stripped of real power, this was a cruel severing of years of Jing Lanxi’s efforts. Fortunately, it was only temporary. She still had a chance to rise again.

“As for Noble Consort Xian, you overstepped your station and showed disrespect to your superiors. Considering that you are with child, I shall punish you with confinement to your quarters for one month and two hundred copies of the Discourses on Womanly Virtue.”

“This consort thanks the Empress Dowager.”

“This son thanks Mother Empress for the punishment.”

“I am tired.” The Empress Dowager rose. What had begun as a farce had ended in this fashion. As she was carried away in her sedan chair, she fell into thought. Unwittingly, that foreign princess’s hands had already penetrated the harem. Though she did not believe Jing Lanxi had framed Shen Fuyu, the palace guards and the various departments of the inner court were already full of Jing Lanxi’s people. She feared there might even be spies within her own palace. “Tell Noble Consort Shu to come see me later.”

The entire palace was already practically in Jing Lanxi’s hands, and the Empress Dowager would not allow such a thing to continue. Noble Consort Shu was the chess piece by which she controlled the harem. There must be no deviation whatsoever in the inner court.

The people of Crescent Moon Palace showed no joy. Though they could hardly believe that their mistress had actually managed to wash black into white, the punishment of confinement and copying had indeed been handed down.

Shen Fuyu had no awareness of this at all. When others were confined, there was no way out ahead; the problem was, this confinement could not hold her.

She took a peach from her storage space and ate it, then, while the servants were lax, she simply used light-footed martial arts to leap over the wall and leave.

Confinement? Nothing much.

Who could possibly stop her from coming and going?

Still, Shen Fuyu rarely went out in ordinary times, so this confinement was truly neither painful nor itchy. If there were no need to go out to pay respects or join those flimsy sisterly gatherings over meals, she had absolutely no desire to leave the palace at all.

This time was the same. She hadn’t really needed to make this trip—but hadn’t she just thoroughly offended Jing Lanxi?

After thinking it over, Shen Fuyu felt it was necessary to pay Qin Zhiyi a visit.

Qin Zhiyi had only just become free, and at the moment he was in a side hall watching Princess Zhaoxi take her medicine.

The princess’s abdomen was already slightly rounded, proof of the small life within her. Her spirits were also somewhat better than when she had first been brought back, though she still looked displeased. The palace attendants tried to coax her into conversation, but she rarely answered them. Only when Qin Zhiyi came would she exchange a few token words with him.

“Your Majesty, you’re sneaking off to see her behind my back again!”

The sudden voice startled Qin Zhiyi. Turning around, he saw Shen Fuyu climbing in through the side hall window.

“Wasn’t your confinement ordered by Mother Empress?” Qin Zhiyi hurried to help her down. “How did you get out?”

“Is climbing over a wall really that hard?” Shen Fuyu asked him back.

Qin Zhiyi looked up, then thought about the height of the palace walls. His expression changed slightly. He knew Shen Fuyu knew martial arts, but he had not expected her to be able to get out like this.

“You’ll give me a heart attack one of these days. Why are you here?” Annoyance rose in him at once. Whenever he saw Shen Fuyu, he knew there was never any good news.

“Oh, nothing much. I set a trap for Jing Lanxi today and lured her right into it. She’s probably furious enough to cough up blood in Phoenix and Azure Palace by now.” Shen Fuyu summarized the day’s events in a few simple words. “I just came to tell you that, based on my understanding of women like the Empress, I’m guessing she’ll come looking for you in a while.”

“...”

What irritated Qin Zhiyi most was that, even while he was angry, Shen Fuyu always had the matter pinned down with uncanny precision.

“I’ll go to Phoenix and Azure Palace tonight,” Qin Zhiyi said. “Since the Empress came to Great Xun, she has now shown signs of trying to win favor.”

He lowered his voice by Shen Fuyu’s ear. “I suspect there may be changes within Cloud Realm.”