The First Test
The morning sun had barely touched the palace when Lianhua was summoned to the Hall of Ancestral Virtue. Her hands were still rough from the early chores, her back aching from endless labor, but she walked steadily, keeping her head lowered.
Empress Dowager Xu sat at the high dais, her expression serene and unreadable. Several maidens and attendants knelt around her, all waiting, trembling under the weight of her gaze.
"Shen Lianhua," the Dowager said, voice soft but sharp, "step forward."
Lianhua obeyed, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room tracing her every movement. She knelt at the designated mark, the polished floor cold beneath her knees.
"You have survived your first weeks," the Dowager continued, "but survival alone does not prove worth. Many live through toil and fear, yet perish through weakness of mind."
The Dowager gestured to a table beside her. On it lay several sealed scrolls, an ink brush, and a sheet of blank paper.
"You are to copy these edicts accurately," the Dowager said. "Mistakes will be noted. Repetition will be observed. Failure will be punished."
Lianhua bowed her head. She had copied documents before, but never under such scrutiny, with the Dowager's eyes cutting through her as if seeing every flaw before it occurred.
Hours passed. She copied line after line, her hand stiff from holding the brush, her eyes strained from following the precise strokes. Every tiny slip of the brush, every hesitated stroke, felt magnified under the Dowager's silent observation.
Finally, she set the brush down. The Dowager examined her work carefully, tilting each scroll in the light.
"Acceptable," she said after a long pause. Her lips curved slightly, a smile that did not soften her eyes. "But only barely. You have skill, but skill alone will not protect you here."
Lianhua lowered her gaze, careful not to reveal relief or pride.
The Dowager leaned forward, voice low, almost conspiratorial. "Remember this, child: every action, every favor, every word spoken in the palace is a test. Some are obvious, some are hidden. Learn to recognize them all, and you may survive. Fail, and you will vanish without notice."
As Lianhua knelt in silence, absorbing the weight of the words, she understood fully that this was only the beginning.
The first test had been endured.
But the palace had many more waiting.
And Shen Lianhua knew that to survive the Vermilion Throne, she would have to endure all—and learn to strike when the time was right.