The morning light lightly leapt on the green-colored roof tiles, and the servants of the Xuanping Marquis Manor began a new day of busy work.
Aside from Qu Hanyan, there were two other concubines in Xie Wenzhao’s inner residence. They came early in the morning to the outside of Jixue Courtyard, saying they wanted to greet the Madam, but in reality, they had heard some rumors yesterday and wanted to see whether Meng Fu was really going to hand over Jixue Courtyard to Qu Hanyan.
If Meng Fu truly could vacate a place for Qu Hanyan, they had to consider for themselves too—maybe they could also get a cup of soup. [“分上一杯羹”: literally “get a cup of soup,” meaning to gain a share of the benefit or profits.]
Hua Xiaoling was the first concubine Xie Wenzhao brought into the manor. She had a plump figure and charming appearance, yet currently the least favored one in the household was also her—Xie Wenzhao almost treated her as if she didn’t exist.
However, she was originally a maid beside the Old Madam, with the Old Madam supporting her from behind. Coupled with her fierce nature and thick skin, she had never suffered any losses in the household.
The one beside her, Sun Yulian, entered the manor just a month later. She came from an official’s family and had some romantic entanglement with Xie Wenzhao in their youth. Later when the Sun family encountered misfortune, Xie Wenzhao took her into the manor. He treated her not badly—compared to Hua Xiaoling’s flamboyance, she acted much more low-key and sometimes even helped Meng Fu manage some of the manor’s affairs.
As for Qu Hanyan, although this concubine’s background was not great, among the three she was the most arrogant. Since entering the manor, she looked down on everyone except Xie Wenzhao. Using poor health as an excuse, she hadn’t come to greet Meng Fu for quite some time.
Hua Xiaoling yawned while squinting up at the sky. What time was it already? Why hadn’t the Madam gotten up yet?
After another two kè [30 minutes] passed, still there was no movement inside. Hua Xiaoling couldn’t sit still and called a servant to ask what the Marquis had talked about with Meng Fu yesterday.
How could the servants know this? They weren’t present when Xie Wenzhao came. Hua Xiaoling asked one by one for half the day without getting any results. Then she asked whether something had happened to Meng Fu last night. Otherwise, why hadn’t she come out by now?
The servant shook her head—answered “don’t know” to every question. Hua Xiaoling grew a bit angry, feeling that the servants were looking down on her and deliberately brushing her off. On top of having waited here for such a long time, she felt especially irritable.
She gathered her breath and scolded, “What’s the use of having you for the Madam? This you don’t know, that you don’t know—do you have pig brains on top of your heads? No wonder the Madam’s illness hasn’t gotten better. I think it’s you lot who’ve angered her! It’s only because the Madam has a kind heart that she kept you here to muddle along every day,” Hua Xiaoling raised her chin and pointed at them arrogantly, “When I see the Madam, I’ll have her sell every last one of you off!”
Her voice grew louder and louder, and her words sharper and sharper. The servants in Jixue Courtyard all drooped their heads, not daring to make a sound.
Qingping, who was guarding by Meng Fu’s bedside, frowned tightly upon hearing Hua Xiaoling’s yelling outside. The Madam had barely fallen asleep last night before waking again, and had been coughing until chǒu hour [丑时, 1–3 AM], only falling back asleep then. Now it hadn’t even been two hours, and they were going to wake her again. If this went on, how could the illness ever get better?
The Madam had a good temper and generally didn’t fuss over small matters with these concubines. But they not only failed to appreciate the Madam, they even took it all as a matter of course, gain an inch and ask for a foot. [“得寸进尺”: literally “gain an inch and ask for a foot”; meaning to push one’s luck, act greedy.]
Qingping exited the room with a cold face, originally intending to tell Hua Xiaoling to lower her voice. But as soon as Hua Xiaoling saw her come out, she became even more spirited—pointing at Qingping’s nose and scolding again, the meaning between her words being that Meng Fu was deliberately leaving them outside.
Qingping was young, not articulate, and thin-skinned. She was so angry she trembled all over, her eyes reddening, yet she couldn’t get a complete sentence out.
Under the light-colored canopy, the white tassels swayed gently. The hibiscus flower above seemed almost alive, spreading faintly amidst the curling smoke. The jade locked in the small box at the bottom of the cabinet glowed faintly in the dark.
Li Yue didn’t sleep very well this time. Yesterday he had thrown a fit in the Zichen Hall, and before bed was still thinking about how to get the performance assessment matter done in the morning court. After falling asleep, he dreamed many, many dreams—first he was at war in the Northern Frontier, then surrounded by a pack of gray wolves during a hunt in Jùn Mountain, and finally back in the Imperial Capital, facing the dead face of the former Emperor…
Li Yue didn’t know when these dreams would end. He just felt unusually tired and still wanted to sleep some more, but suddenly a woman’s quarreling voice came to his ears, making him annoyed and fully awake.
Where did this palace maid come from? So unruly, daring to make a racket inside Zichen Hall—how was Gao Xi managing things? Can he still do the job? If he can’t, he’d better be replaced quickly.
Li Yue frowned, thinking that since he had already thrown a tantrum yesterday, today being a new beginning, he should at least tolerate a bit. But the noise showed no sign of stopping—on the contrary, it got even worse.
The more Li Yue thought about it, the angrier he became. How could someone dare to jump on his head overnight? Had he been overthrown? That was too fast, wasn’t it?
What was tolerable, what was not—since everything had to be recalculated from the beginning anyway, what did one more day matter? Li Yue sat up abruptly from bed, reached toward the cabinet by the bed, grabbed a cup, and smashed it on the ground.
The sound of the cup hitting the floor was clear and loud. In an instant, the inside and outside of the room fell into silence. Hua Xiaoling was startled and finally stopped yelling. She turned her head toward the direction where the sound came from.
Before the crowd could figure out what had happened inside the room, they heard their always dignified and gentle furen [Madam] suddenly curse out loud:
“All of you shut up for Zhen!”
“What’s all the noise? Are you all rushing to reincarnate?” [“赶着去投胎” – literally “hurrying to reincarnate”; an extremely sharp and sarcastic curse meaning “eager to die.”]
“If you want to die, then go die far away from Ye! Don’t come here early in the morning to bring misfortune!” [爷 (yé): a masculine form of self-reference often used by domineering men.]
He cursed three sentences in a row before stopping, not speaking again. After that, the entire courtyard fell into dead silence. Everyone froze in place, unmoving, not even daring to breathe.
Hua Xiaoling had a breath stuck in her throat and nearly choked herself to death, but didn’t dare cough out loud. She forcibly held that breath back down.
Qingping, who had originally wanted to go in and take a look, was frozen on the spot. Her expression was somewhat dazed and helpless.
Was that just now… really the voice of their furen?
For a long time, the person inside the room said nothing more. Everyone guessed perhaps the furen had simply had a nightmare. It was just that her outburst had come so suddenly, and they hadn’t quite heard clearly what she said before. Those who did hear it clearly also felt they must have misheard.
Qingping snapped out of it. Worried something had happened to Meng Fu, she quickly ran back into the room. She circled around the screen, lifted the beaded curtain, and saw their furen at that moment sitting in front of the mirror, the expression on her face unusually ferocious.
For the first time, Qingping felt fear from Meng Fu. She didn’t know why it was like this. She swallowed and cautiously stepped forward, asking softly:
“Furen, what’s wrong with you?”
Li Yue stared fixedly at the woman in the mirror. The woman had a delicate forehead and moth-like eyebrows, bright eyes and white teeth, her hair like clouds, hanging down her back.
This face seemed to lack no merits—the only problem was, this was not his face.
How fatal.
Just now, after Li Yue had furiously scolded those people outside, he suddenly realized—that wasn’t even his own voice. He looked down at himself and found that he had actually turned into a woman.
This matter was so bizarre that at first, Li Yue thought he was still dreaming. But that hope was quickly shattered. He had now, truly and completely, become a woman.
A woman whose body wasn’t even in good condition.
Li Yue cursed inwardly—no wonder someone dared to run wild on his head first thing in the morning.
So now, who was he?
And who had become him?
“Furen? Furen?” Qingping called out twice more, gathering her courage, and asked,
“What exactly is wrong? Please don’t scare this servant… Should I call a doctor for you?”
Her voice carried a sobbing tone, as if she were about to cry the next moment.
Li Yue turned his head, gave Qingping a glance, and silently turned back. He said slowly:
“No need. Zhen… I am thinking about something.”
Qingping followed his words and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking,” Li Yue looked at the unfamiliar face in the mirror and lightly poked it with a finger,
“What sin did I commit to deserve this?”
Qingping couldn’t understand the meaning behind Li Yue’s words and asked, “Furen, what are you talking about?”
Li Yue said nothing, carefully contemplating the question he had just raised—
Was it that his slaughter over the past two years was too excessive?
Or was it because he reduced his ancestral offerings by half during the ancestral worship last year?
Or maybe during the heaven-sacrificing ritual in his enthronement year, he nearly fell asleep?
Ah, the sins he had committed over the years were indeed not few.
But why did it have to be today? He didn’t seem to have done anything particularly outrageous recently.
Truly heaven has no justice.
Could it be that he was schemed against by someone?
Then how could he return to his own body?
Li Yue pondered for a long time. In fact, up until now, he still couldn’t be sure that someone was currently sitting in the position of ruler of the world in his place. Maybe before long, he’d even hear news of the emperor’s passing—that would really be fatal.
Irritated, he got up and started pacing around the table, but after only a couple of circles, he began to feel dizzy. Li Yue became even more annoyed—this body was really too useless.
He needed to quickly figure out his current situation and then make the next plan. Hopefully, he was still in the imperial capital.
Li Yue found a chair and sat down. He asked Qingping, “What was going on outside just now?”
Qingping briefly recounted the situation to Li Yue.
Li Yue listened to this concubine and that concubine—his head hurt. He asked, “Where are they now?”
“They should still be outside,” Qingping cautiously asked, “Does Furen want to see them?”
“Let them all come in,” he said.
Qingping turned to go call them, but after just a few steps, she stopped again, looked back at their furen, and hesitated to speak.
Li Yue raised his eyes and met her gaze, asking directly: “What is it? Still something else?”
Qingping said, “Furen, should you change your clothes?”
Li Yue was currently wearing a set of white underclothes; as a marquis’s wife, it was indeed inappropriate to meet others like this.
“Troublesome.”
Li Yue looked down at the slightly loose sash around the chest. A faint flush rose behind his ears. He closed his eyes and waved at Qingping: “Then let them wait a bit longer outside.”
Qingping responded with a “yes” and turned to leave. She vaguely sensed that today’s furen was different from usual, though she didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The room was soon left with only Li Yue.
Li Yue, the test begins now.
He furrowed his brows, narrowed his eyes, and slowly untied the sash, the cautious look on his face as if touching the wrong place would immediately cost him his chastity.