Noble Princess Consort Rong scowled at the concubines seated below her.
At a signal from the Empress, the Chief Palace Maid An Qing respectfully came forward and took the copied texts Jiang Xian presented with both hands. The Empress flipped through them casually, a look of surprise appearing on her face as she saw the contents.
Ma Wan Yi asked impatiently, "Is there something wrong with the transcription? The Empress must handle this justly and uphold palace discipline."
Copying by hand was not only strenuous on the hands, but physically exhausting as well.
Eunuchs were forbidden from learning to read, but palace maids were allowed to. Most of the palace maids who served the Empress personally in Jianzhang Palace were skilled calligraphers, which was convenient for helping the Empress manage palace affairs. Consequently, some concubines, when punished with transcription, would secretly have their palace maids do it for them. Once the doors were closed, those serving outside wouldn't know who was actually writing.
Besides punishment, this also happened when copying Buddhist sutras as offerings.
As long as the sentiment was sincere, even a digital wooden fish could accumulate merit.
However, palace maids were, after all, of a lower station. Paper and ink were expensive, so they didn't have many opportunities to practice their calligraphy. Their handwriting was consequently not as refined. Often, out of ten pages, the one with particularly ugly writing was the one copied by a palace maid. It was easy to spot without needing a handwriting expert; it all depended on whether the person in charge chose to be strict about it.
Seeing the unusual expression on the Empress's face, Ma Wan Yi was convinced that the handwriting in the pages Jiang Xian submitted must be exceptionally ugly.
Finishing it all in one night...
'She must have mobilized every literate palace maid she has to copy it together!'
Filled with malice, Ma Wan Yi's only fear now was that the Empress would cover for her.
All the old retainers from the Prince Mansion considered Chu Siyun a good person.
A good person in the traditional sense of the word.
For any unintentional slip-ups by servants or concubines, she would issue a light punishment, provided it didn't affect important matters or stem from ill intent.
Queen Chu didn't consider herself particularly kind.
She just felt that perhaps life in the harem was too dull and dreary, which was why the other women would find any excuse to squabble and take pleasure in seeing others fall. She, however, had the best entertainment to pass the time—sleeping. She truly couldn't derive any pleasure from the concubines' infighting; she'd rather get some more sleep.
Because she wouldn't kick people when they were down, Noble Princess Consort Rong called her soft-hearted.
Ever since Noble Princess Consort Rong had taken a share of the power to manage the palace, she would constantly whisper in the Empress's ear that white silk cords were "economical and practical" and that they should stock up on them. She wished she could bestow a "starter pack" upon every new concubine entering the palace, which, when opened, would contain an exquisite white silk cord.
The Empress glanced at Shu Changzai, seated below, and noticed she wasn't flustered at all.
She said,
"There is nothing amiss with Shu Changzai's transcription."
"A moment ago, after taking Shu Changzai's punishment transcription, the Empress's expression was a little off. Did Shu Changzai perhaps copy the wrong content?" Ma Wan Yi pressed, then added a slight embellishment to her words. "The Empress is benevolent. This servant is only afraid that someone might take advantage of the Empress's good nature to do something deceptive like having a palace maid write for them."
The sword was drawn, aimed directly at Shu Changzai.
The minds of the harem's women were a whirlwind of different thoughts.
Princess Consort Zhang: 'Is this drama not over yet? I really want to go back and pet my cat.'
Zhang Changzai was bursting with resentment—
'Isn't that just what I said earlier? So I was humiliated for nothing. Noble Princess Consort Rong is such a cruel person, impossible to please.'
Jiang Xian, however, was thinking of something else entirely.
She was thinking, 'It seems the Empress doesn't have the image of a villain in the harem, if even someone like Ma Wan Yi dares to challenge her.'
'But this doesn't mean the Empress's position is unstable.'
'High-level leaders in big companies are often very pleasant, because they can't be bothered to argue with junior staff. On the rare occasion they take a disliking to some small cog in the machine, they just have their subordinate's subordinate fire them and be done with it. To get red in the face over some trivial matter would be seen by others as beneath them.'
And just as she thought, the Empress did not take the bait, instead saying coolly:
"Ma Wan Yi, you have overstepped your bounds."
"It is not your place to comment on my expression."
She was merely lazy, not devoid of a temper.
If anyone and everyone could question her, she would have to waste effort responding to each one, which would be far too troublesome.
A mere glimpse of the true authority of the Queen of Six Palaces was enough to drain the color from Ma Wan Yi's face. She hastily rose and knelt. "This servant had no intention of overstepping. I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness."
The hall fell silent.
Seeing her own pawn being put in her place by the Empress, Noble Princess Consort Rong was unafraid—if this had been her Zhaoyang Palace and someone had dared speak to her that way, Qiu Yun would have already marched up and delivered two slaps. The Empress was still too merciful. As long as the offender knew when to back down and showed submission, she wouldn't press the matter further.
The Empress's expression cooled as she raised the pages in her hand, showing them to the assembly.
"I was simply admiring Shu Changzai's fine calligraphy. I found it rather pleasing, and thus looked a moment longer."
All the concubines were literate.
Most of them preferred painting, but Princess Consort Zhang was also quite accomplished in calligraphy. Seeing the excellent Slender Gold script on the paper, she spoke up, a rare occurrence: "It is indeed well-written. This is not the work of a palace maid; it could only be achieved through dedicated practice, day and night."
Jiang Xian kept her head lowered. "Thank you for the praise, Lady Xianfei."
Noble Princess Consort Rong glanced over, then drawled with a smile, "The style and spirit of this script are excellent. They say handwriting reveals one's character, but that doesn't seem to apply in Shu Changzai's case."
How could a spineless, seductive creature write such fine script! It was as if heaven had bestowed its gifts upon the wrong person. The skill of the calligraphy was plain for all the concubines to see, but Noble Princess Consort Rong couldn't stand to see her thrive and had to put her down.
The Noble Consort thought to herself: 'A woman of letters? Is she even worthy!'
The Lady's words were truly harsh.
The same thought surfaced in the minds of all the Six Palace Concubines.
With ironclad proof before them, Noble Princess Consort Rong couldn't immediately think of another reason to make trouble for Jiang Xian. Meanwhile, Ma Wan Yi, intimidated by the Empress's stern expression, reined in her insolence and fell silent.
Seeing Shu Changzai escape unscathed once again, Consort Guo's mood soured.
The concubines filed out of Jianzhang Palace one after another.
Surrounded by Ma Wan Yi and her palace maids, Noble Princess Consort Rong walked out of Jianzhang Palace. As she was about to pass Shu Changzai, she prepared to deliver a threat, as was her custom. She had the words all planned out: "Serving the Emperor and still able to copy texts until dawn... Shu Changzai, you are a deep schemer indeed. I will remember you."
Unfortunately, she put the two words "Shu Changzai" too late in her sentence.
As she glided gracefully to Jiang Xian's side and parted her crimson lips to speak, "After serving the Emperor..."
Before the final syllable of the word had even left her lips, a slender figure in pale green flashed past her and vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.
That Shu Changzai was fast!
She was a veritable green flash!
Noble Princess Consort Rong was stunned.
If she had started with the two words "Shu Changzai," the lower-ranked concubine would have been forced to stop when called by name. But she was inexperienced and waited too long. Shu Changzai was already ten meters away, leaving her to stand there with a cold expression.
This time, Jiang Xian hadn't brought Chen Daying with her.
Chen Daying was smart enough to understand. She hugged the shadows along the wall as she walked, trying to minimize her presence, terrified of being grabbed by the Lady to serve as a target for her anger.
※
「Back to Emperor Xie Che.」
The farce at Jianzhang Palace soon reached the Emperor's ears.
He knew Shu Changzai had been punished with transcription, but then he had summoned her for his favor in the middle of the night, so she surely had no time to write. Given the Noble Consort's intolerant nature, she would certainly use today's morning greeting to make trouble. So, he had mentioned it to Liang Yuyin, telling him to keep an eye on things. A small punishment could be amusing, but physical punishment was harmful.
'That body, as perfect as white jade... even the slightest injury to it would be a sacrilegious waste.'
Mr. Liang was an expert in the art of pleasing his superiors. He also knew the current Emperor loved to watch drama unfold, so today's events at Jianzhang Palace were well worth reporting. The "green flash" had barely returned to Yizhu Pavilion before Mr. Liang was reporting back to the Emperor.
"Your Majesty," Mr. Liang began, "during the morning greetings at Jianzhang Palace, the Lady and Ma Wan Yi asked Shu Changzai how much of her punishment transcription she had completed."
At the mention of the transcription, the Emperor gritted his molars.
'The poor girl,' he thought. 'She's only being tormented by the Noble Consort because she gained my favor. But she's hardly the docile, pliant type herself, tracing the 'Women's Precepts' on my back with her finger... Only she could come up with something so audacious!'
'But he was also partly responsible for her having no time to complete the task.'
The Emperor remained silent, listening as the eunuch continued. "Shu Changzai replied to the Lady that she had already finished. She then presented the completed 'Women's Precepts' to the Empress on the spot. After inspecting it, the Empress praised Shu Changzai's beautiful calligraphy."
"You couldn't blame her for not finishing..."
The Emperor paused. "Wait, she finished?"