Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 172: Demon and Evil

   The fifteenth day of the fifth month—the anniversary of Princess He’an’s death.

Before the offering table, the shamaness presented wine; the sacred knife-wielding shaman kowtowed and prayed three times.

Inside Shoukang Palace, all was solemn. Everyone joined the Empress Dowager in reciting the rebirth mantra: “Namo Amitabhaya tathagataya, tadyatha amṛtod bhave…”

The shaman drum began to beat. The shamaness chanted a divine song and danced to the rhythm; the string of bells tied around her waist jingled with every movement.

While the Empress Dowager was reciting sutras, Chenbi approached, paid her respects, and then respectfully presented a volume of scripture: “This concubine respectfully wishes the Empress Dowager eternal health and peace. This is the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra that I copied for the princess. May the princess be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.”

The Empress Dowager nodded slightly.

Chenbi walked toward the offering table and was just about to place the Buddhist scripture down when suddenly there was a “pa-ta” sound. She looked up and saw that the small offering flowers on the altar had spontaneously ignited without any flame. In an instant, the fire spread like a greedy tongue, licking from the flowers all the way up to the portrait.

The portrait depicted a chubby, adorable little girl. Though still young, her features were delicate and well-formed—a true little beauty in the making. Most distinctive were the two small moles on her chin.

“He’an! He’an!” The Empress Dowager’s face changed dramatically. She threw herself toward the portrait without regard for anything. The Empress Dowager’s successor quickly held her back and shouted loudly: “Someone! Put out the fire!”

Unfortunately, only women were inside the hall at the time. One after another they screamed and fled, paying no attention to the portrait. The guards outside could not enter so quickly. In the end, it was Wei Yingluo who rushed forward in a few strides, snatched the portrait down, burning half her sleeve and blackening one side of her face in the process.

“Empress Dowager.” She handed over the portrait.

The Empress Dowager hurriedly took it and held it in her arms like a child, her eyes red-rimmed: “He’an! Oh, He’an!”

At that moment, Prince Yuan Chunwang finally arrived belatedly. He directed a group of eunuchs and guards to extinguish the fire on the offering table.

Looking at the messy, ruined altar, the Empress Dowager frowned and raised her head toward the shaman standing solemnly to the side:

“Madame Shaman, something went wrong with the ceremony. Will this affect An’er?”

The shaman slightly lifted her eyelids:

“The princess died in childhood because her front yin had already ended while her back yin had not yet arrived—she originally had no fortune to depart to the west. For the sake of allowing the princess to be reborn in ultimate bliss, Your Majesty has spent a lifetime doing good deeds and accumulating vast merit. In another two years, great accomplishment would have been achieved. Unfortunately, all those years of effort have been destroyed today by a single demonic evil!”

Everyone was shocked.

The Step Empress: “What demonic evil?”

The shaman’s turbid eyes fixed on Chenbi. She raised her hand and pointed directly:

“The moment she appeared, the Buddhist flowers spontaneously combusted and all the offerings were ruined—she must be that demonic evil! Empress Dowager, kill her. Use her fresh blood as a sacrifice to appease the anger of the spirits!”

Chenbi: “What demonic evil? You’re talking nonsense—I haven’t done anything!”

The Empress: “Concubine Rong, you must not be disrespectful to the shaman. Madame Shaman, are you absolutely certain of what you’re saying?”

The shaman scoffed with icy disdain:

“You people actually dare to doubt me?”

Even though they didn’t truly believe it in their hearts, the various concubines and consorts still agreed verbally and began to chime in one after another.

“Empress, I know Your Ladyship has always been merciful, but Concubine Rong is excessively beautiful and has bewitched His Majesty—how can we be sure she isn’t some demonic creature?”

“Exactly! Madame Shaman is the intermediary between humans, ghosts, and the divine—she transmits messages across the three realms. How could we possibly doubt her words?”

“Empress Dowager, thirty years of accumulated merit, all lost today! Because of this demonic evil, the princess’s chance to reach ultimate bliss has turned into bubbles. If you continue to indulge her, who knows how many more people will be implicated!”

At other times the Empress Dowager might have shown mercy, but when it concerned her most beloved deceased daughter, and with everyone piling on accusations, she finally darkened her face and said:

“Seize Concubine Rong!”

Yuan Chunwang had been waiting for this command for a long time. With a wave of his hand, the eunuchs immediately rushed forward to capture Chenbi.

Chenbi swiftly threw herself at the Empress Dowager’s feet, clutching her skirt hem tightly and crying miserably:

“Empress Dowager, this is someone framing me! I don’t know what happened at all!”

The Empress Dowager looked down from above:

“Framing you?”

Chenbi: “It is a frame-up! Someone must have bribed Madame Shaman, and the altar itself was tampered with! Now that everything has been burned to ashes, I have no evidence to show—but if you interrogate Madame Shaman, the truth will come out!”

“Insolent!” the Empress snapped. “What kind of person is Madame Shaman? Even the Empress Dowager treats her with courtesy—how dare you slander her!”

The Empress sighed:

“Take her away!”

Chenbi refused to let go of the Empress Dowager’s skirt, clinging to it like a lifeline:

“Empress Dowager, please look carefully at your servant—I have flesh and blood, I am a living person!”

Originally the Empress Dowager had been completely focused on the altar and hadn’t truly looked at her. Only now, hearing her wretched cries, did she finally turn her gaze toward her. But the moment she looked properly, her eyes froze. She suddenly reached out, gripped Chenbi’s chin, and her voice trembled slightly:

“You—”

Although no one knew exactly what was happening, judging from the Empress Dowager’s expression, the situation had clearly changed. The Empress frowned and gave the order:

“Take her!”

Chenbi simply threw herself into the Empress Dowager’s arms like a frightened child:

“No, Empress Dowager, no!”

To everyone’s astonishment, the Empress Dowager actually shielded her the way one would protect a child, placing one hand on her back:

“Stop!”

The whole room was stunned. Countless eyes fixed on the arm with which the Empress Dowager was protecting her.

The Empress Dowager took a deep breath, stared at Chenbi, and said word by word:

“You. Come with me.”

With that, she actually left everyone in the room behind, turned, and walked into the inner chamber. Chenbi glanced back once at Wei Yingluo, then got up and hurried after her.

The Empress had kept her attention on Chenbi the entire time and naturally did not miss that glance. She slowly turned her head, her gaze locking onto Wei Yingluo’s face, and gave a cold smile.

Wei Yingluo lowered her head and said nothing, but in her heart she understood: from this moment onward, she and the Empress were no longer on the same side.

Inside the inner chamber.

   The Empress Dowager dismissed everyone else, leaving only Aunt Liu and Chenbi in the room.

Chenbi knelt before the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager lifted her chin and studied her carefully for a long time. Her gaze grew stranger and stranger until she suddenly asked, “When is your birthday?”

Chenbi was startled.

The Empress Dowager: “Answer me.”

“September fifteenth, at the hour of Zi.” Chenbi quickly replied, then cautiously looked at her. “Your Majesty, why do you ask this?”

The Empress Dowager murmured to herself, “September fifteenth, at the hour of Zi…”

After a long silence, she waved her hand. “Take her away.”

Chenbi opened her mouth, about to explain further, but Aunt Liu spoke first to cut her off: “Concubine Rong, the Empress Dowager understands your grievances. Please follow this servant for now.”

Chenbi had no choice but to follow her out. Not long after the two left, the door opened again. Wei Yingluo stepped over the threshold. “Your Majesty, you summoned me?”

The Empress Dowager sat in her chair, the portrait of Princess He’an laid across her knees. She slowly stroked the image of the little girl in the painting, her expression complex. After a long while, she finally spoke slowly: “I know the Empress intends to kill with a borrowed knife. But someone must be held accountable for ruining the memorial ceremony—for my He’an! The shaman lady is a divine messenger; her words are the will of the gods. That is why I resolved to punish Concubine Rong! But I never expected…”

Wei Yingluo: “What is it?”

The Empress Dowager hesitated for a long moment before finally saying, “Do you remember when I told you that, the year He’an fell gravely ill, I visited every temple, kowtowed and burned incense before every Buddha, begging to trade ten years of my life for hers?”

Wei Yingluo nodded.

“At that time, a high monk told me that if I left a mark on the princess, even if I could not keep her in this life, there might be a chance to reunite in the next. I steeled myself and lightly pierced two small dots under He’an’s chin—like this.” The Empress Dowager pointed to the spot just below her own lips. “Just now, the moment Concubine Rong rushed forward, I personally saw that she also has…”

Wei Yingluo: “Your Majesty, the idea of reincarnation is truly absurd. You should not believe such things.”

The Empress Dowager grew agitated: “But she was also born on September fifteenth at the hour of Zi—the exact same time, the exact same mark. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”

Wei Yingluo: “You are simply missing the princess too much. But Concubine Rong comes from the Huolan tribe—how could she possibly be the princess reincarnated?”

The Empress Dowager: “There have already been cases of reincarnated spirit children. In the folk tales, many babies are born with strange marks, and everyone says these are bonds left by parents from a previous life!”

Wei Yingluo: “Your Majesty!”

The Empress Dowager: “Perhaps you are right. But what if? What if she truly is—”

The heart of parents under heaven is pitiful; as long as there is even the slightest possibility, they will cling to it desperately. The Empress Dowager said no more. She only lowered her head to gaze at the portrait on her lap, staring at the two tiny moles beneath the little girl’s chin.

Suddenly the door opened. Hongli’s voice broke the stillness of the room. He sounded slightly out of breath: “This son respectfully greets the Empress Dowager’s benevolent peace!”

Wei Yingluo turned and curtsied to him. “This servant respectfully greets Your Majesty’s peace.”

Hongli didn’t even glance at her. “Empress Dowager, where is Concubine Rong?”

Seeing that she did not answer, he grew anxious. “Empress Dowager, the shaman lady’s words cannot be trusted. Chenbi is absolutely not some demonic creature!”

Only then did the Empress Dowager slowly raise her head. “You granted the shaman lady honor and respect, yet you forbid me to believe her words. Is that not contradictory?”

Hongli scoffed with icy disdain. “Empress Dowager, I granted the shaman lady status and reverence so that she may perform her role in the morning and evening sacrifices, in order to preserve the old customs of our ancestors and remind all of Great Qing that this realm was not easily won. It was never my intention to let her dominate your thoughts or dictate your decisions. Please trust me—Chenbi is merely an ordinary beauty. She is absolutely not some evil spirit!”

“Your Majesty!”

Hongli suddenly turned around and saw Aunt Liu pushing the door open, with Chenbi standing unharmed behind her. His face immediately lit up with joy as he reached out and said, “Chenbi, come here!”

To avoid seeing their hands clasped together, Wei Yingluo quickly lowered her head—only to see the feet of the two of them walking past her side by side.

“Wait!” the Empress Dowager suddenly called out.

Hongli abruptly tightened his grip on Chenbi’s hand. “Empress Dowager, do you have any further instructions?”

The Empress Dowager smiled. “No need to be nervous. I won’t harm the one you love. I simply felt an instant affinity with Concubine Rong. If she is willing in the future, she may come often to Shoukang Palace to keep me company and chat.”

Hongli was stunned.

After returning to Yangxin Hall, his brows remained furrowed. He dismissed everyone around them, pulled Chenbi to sit beside him, and said, “Tell me—what exactly happened?”

Chenbi answered honestly: “Today, this concubine attended the princess’s memorial ceremony, hoping to win the Empress Dowager’s favor. Who would have thought the offerings would suddenly catch fire? The shamaness pointed at me and called me a demon, insisting that the Empress Dowager deal with me!”

She vividly recounted everything that had happened that day. When she reached the most thrilling parts, even Hongli wiped a cold sweat for her. Yet his doubts only deepened. “How did you escape this disaster?”

Chenbi rolled her eyes. “This concubine doesn’t know either. The Empress Dowager was about to have me killed, then suddenly changed her mind.”

Hongli seized her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, and said gravely, “Chenbi, I want the truth.”

If Wei Yingluo had seen the look in his eyes at that moment, she would have known that Hongli did not love Chenbi. Love is a poison that makes people foolish, biased, and gullible—yet right now his gaze was terrifyingly calm, sharp as a sword piercing straight into the heart.

After merely meeting his eyes for a moment, Chenbi lowered her head and sighed. “Consort-Ling saved me.”

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