Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 199: Cutting the Black Locks

   There was so much deep affection hidden in Step-Empress’s eyes. Facing such a gaze, Hongli actually hesitated.

“Noble Consort Ling, please.”

Both of them turned their heads at the same time. A eunuch respectfully lifted the curtain, and then Wei Yingluo stepped out from behind it.

Step-Empress stared at her fixedly. “You’re actually still alive?”

Not only alive, but alive and perfectly well—not a single injury on her from head to toe. How different from herself: her fingers covered in blisters, the sleeves of her robe scorched and charred. She looked both pitiful and ridiculous.

“Empress,” Li Yu said, “when the incident occurred, His Majesty ordered this servant to protect Noble Consort Ling. Naturally she emerged unscathed.”

Step-Empress looked at the completely unharmed Wei Yingluo, then at the guards standing respectfully behind her, and suddenly scoffed with icy disdain.

“When the fire broke out on the ship, the first person I thought of was you. Your Majesty, look at my hands.” She slowly turned toward Hongli and raised both hands, blistered and raw. “Look—these were burned when I rushed through the door to save you. It hurt so much, so very much, but I have no regrets. At that moment there was only one thought in my heart: even if I couldn’t save you, at least we could die together. But Wei Yingluo…”

Her tears suddenly fell, cutting clean tracks through the soot that the earlier flames had left on her face.

“What has Wei Yingluo ever done for you?” Step-Empress asked him through her sobs. “You stayed behind to act as bait, yet you sent her away and dispatched every guard around you to protect her! On what grounds? She never thinks of you. She doesn’t even love you—she only loves herself!”

But why… why are your eyes only ever on her?

I have given you so much, yet you turn a blind eye—even to the blisters on my hands, to my pain, to my tears.

“Empress…” Hongzhou looked at her, and as though sharing her pain, tears also fell from his eyes.

These two people were actually a perfectly matched pair of pitiful souls—both in love with the same cold, indifferent man who would never look back at them, never care for them.

Hongli said coldly: “Take her away.”

Without waiting for the eunuch to step forward, the Step-Empress suddenly turned and lunged at a guard. Ignoring everything, she drew the sword from his waist and pointed the blade directly at Wei Yingluo, looking utterly mad.

Amid waves of screams, Hongli strode forward quickly, shielding Wei Yingluo in front of him. He stared warily at the Step-Empress: “Have you truly gone insane?”

The Step-Empress looked at him and smiled. “Your Majesty, Empress Xiaoxian loved you, but she loved freedom even more. Noble Consort Hui loved you, but she loved the Gao family more. Consort Chun never had you in her heart. As for the others, all they see are these dragon robes and boundless wealth! In the entire harem, there is only one person… who truly loved you as a man.”

Her eyes held only Hongli, but Hongli’s eyes were fixed solely on the knife in her hand. He said coldly, “Put down the knife!”

“Do you think I want to kill her?” The Step-Empress gave a bitter, tragic laugh. “I originally intended to kill her, but now… there’s no need anymore.”

With one motion she tore off the flag headdress from her hair. Her long hair cascaded like a waterfall down her shoulders. She raised the knife horizontally — a sound like tearing silk rang out… and she actually swung the blade to cut off her own black tresses.

“You really have gone mad!” The Empress Dowager was so shocked she clutched her prayer beads tightly, murmuring “Amitabha” over and over.

Among the Manchus, cutting one’s hair was forbidden except during national mourning; in the most serious interpretation, such an act could even be seen as cursing Hongli and cursing the Empress Dowager.

Only the Step-Empress herself knew in her heart: by severing her hair, she was also severing the threads of love.

“The Empress’s behavior is deranged and resembles madness. Immediately escort her back to the Forbidden City.” Hongli coldly pronounced the final verdict. “And the Prince He… take him as well!”

Neither the Step-Empress nor Hongzhou resisted. Both of them had lost the most important thing in their lives that night. The pain in their hearts had already surpassed life and death.

Only Zhener, when the eunuch came to take her, suddenly broke free of his grip, pulled out her hairpin, and rushed toward Yuan Chunwang: “You lied to me!”

But Yuan Chunwang had been prepared long ago. He snatched the hairpin from her, then reversed it and drove it straight into her chest.

Zhener collapsed at his feet. In her dying moments, using her last bit of strength, she said to him: “Liar… you’ve been lying to me all along… ten years… you lied to me for ten years…”

Yuan Chunwang didn’t even glance at her. He knelt toward Hongli and said: “Your Majesty, this slave was forced by the Empress’s power and had no choice but to aid the tyrant in his evil deeds. I am willing to point out to Your Majesty the officers in Shanpu Battalion who have been bribed. I beg you, in consideration of this slave’s merit in atoning for my crimes, to spare this slave’s life.”

Looking at Zhener, who had breathed her last at his feet, Wei Yingluo scoffed with icy disdain: “The one who planned all of this actually claims he was forced by others — how truly laughable.”

Everyone looked at her in astonishment. What was she saying? This eunuch had planned the entire rebellion?

   Wei Yingluo stepped forward slowly until she stood beside him, looking down at him from above: “I sent people to your hometown — the Taihang Mountains.”

Yuan Chunwang’s expression changed. The Empress Dowager’s expression also changed. Suddenly she spoke: “Everyone, leave us.”

The others all withdrew, leaving only the Empress Dowager, Hongli, Yingluo, and Yuan Chunwang in the room.

The Empress Dowager carefully studied Yuan Chunwang’s face. The more she looked, the graver her expression became: “Yingluo, who exactly is he?”

“Empress Dowager, you once said that during the Emperor Yongzheng’s time, when he was pursued and attacked, Lady Qian drew away the pursuers. Later, the Emperor Yongzheng hid in a peasant family.” Wei Yingluo said calmly, “And he is the son born to the peasant woman who took in the Emperor Yongzheng back then.”

Yuan Chunwang raised his head to look at her, feigning confusion: “Noble Consort Ling, what are you talking about?”

“Xiaoquanzi went without sleep for days and only just arrived on the boat today. He also brought along a neighbor who witnessed everything back then. Would you like to meet them?” Wei Yingluo asked.

The deliberately feigned confusion finally vanished from his face. He smiled like a brilliantly venomous snake: “Good little sister, since I can’t stop you anyway, go ahead and tell them everything about me.”

Wei Yingluo had intended to do exactly that all along — she needed no prompting from him.

“Empress Dowager, he claims to have Aisin Gioro blood flowing in his veins, yet he was maliciously retaliated against by the former Prince Lian and sent into the palace. He instigated Prince He to rebel and step by step forced the Empress — all so that he could use Prince He’s hand to murder both Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager. I suspect that once the plan succeeded and they returned to the Forbidden City, he would immediately turn on Prince He and accuse him of crimes before the imperial clan.” Wei Yingluo sighed. “In that way, everyone he hates would disappear.”

The absurdity of the matter was almost like something out of a theatrical drama. It took Hongli a long while to recover. Furious, he roared: “A mere little eunuch actually had the audacity to toy with my own younger brother in the palm of his hand!”

Yuan Chunwang smiled coyishly and slowly stood up, no longer maintaining the servile posture he had shown earlier. Now he carried himself as Hongli’s equal and spoke softly: “He is your brother, and so am I! Hongli, when you all enjoyed wealth, honor, power, and status—who ever spared a thought for the life I was living?”

There was a smile on his face, but hatred burned in his eyes.

“I was a ‘net soldier.’ Do you know what a net soldier is? The lowest-ranking eunuch in the entire Forbidden City, specially assigned to carry and dispose of the night-soil buckets!” Yuan Chunwang burst into loud laughter. “Ha! I too have the blood of the Aisin Gioro clan flowing in my veins, just like all of you. Yet you all live like proper human beings, while I live as neither man nor ghost! Is that fair? No, it’s not fair—so I want to destroy you, destroy Hongzhou, destroy the entire Aisin Gioro family!”

“What does this have to do with Yongqi?” Wei Yingluo said coldly. “Others may have wronged you, but did he wrong you too? When your misfortune happened, he hadn’t even been born yet. Why did you swap out Ye Tianshi’s corrupted worms?”

“Foolish girl.” Yuan Chunwang looked at her the way one might look at a silly younger sister. “Those were Burmese corpse worms. They feed on corpses, devouring flesh and blood until they become incomparably venomous. You saved Yongqi… but you doomed yourself. Look at your own hand.”

Reflexively, Wei Yingluo hid her hand behind her back, but Hongli grabbed it and pulled it forward. The back of her hand was pitch black; the wound was still oozing dark blood that carried a foul, rotting stench.

Hongli demanded harshly, “Yuan Chunwang—where is the antidote?”

“There is none.” Even if there had been one, Yuan Chunwang would never have given it. He gazed tenderly at Wei Yingluo. “Yingluo, you once promised to stay with me in the Yuanmingyuan. You broke your vow. That’s all right—I’ll help you fulfill it. One month… or perhaps even sooner. It will start from your hand. Bit by bit you will rot away until nothing remains but a puddle of bloody water. Don’t be afraid. I will wait for you down in the Yellow Springs. I will wait for you forever! Hahahaha!”

The more he spoke, the happier he became, as though he had finally achieved his heart’s desire. In the end he threw his head back and laughed wildly.

Hongli had no time to deal with this madman. He kept shouting urgently: “Li Yu! Li Yu! Quickly summon Ye Tianshi!”

The Empress Dowager, however, continued to turn the prayer beads in her hand. After murmuring “Amitabha,” she suddenly spoke: “The previous Emperor never had any illegitimate child left outside the palace. You are not a descendant of the Aisin Gioro family.”

Yuan Chunwang’s laughter stopped abruptly. He glared at the Empress Dowager. “You’re lying!”

The Empress Dowager said calmly, “Would I not know whether the late Emperor had any private children or not? You claim to be his son—what proof do you have?”

Yuan Chunwang retorted, “When he was recovering from injury in my maternal grandmother’s house, he left behind a complete set of prince’s robes. Isn’t that proof enough?”

The Empress Dowager smiled. “Lady Qian, in order to help the late Emperor escape, exchanged clothes with him. A gold-threaded python robe—how precious. Would bandits really let such a thing go? As for who took advantage of the situation to violate a peasant girl… that remains unknown.”

Yuan Chunwang shouted furiously, “Impossible!”

The Empress Dowager looked at him with pity. “Look at you—what a handsome young man you could have been. You might have married, had children, and lived a peaceful life like any ordinary person. But because of a misunderstanding, you came all the way to the Forbidden City and ended up crippled and ruined. No wonder you hate, no wonder you resent. But alas—you have hated the wrong people and resented the wrong ones. The late Emperor never had a son like you, and the present Emperor has never had a brother like you. You spent your whole life using every means at your disposal for revenge, and in the end it was all for nothing. How pitiful… truly pitiful.”

Every person needs something to live for.

What had kept Yuan Chunwang alive through this miserable existence was revenge.

Without that pursuit, that obsession, that goal, he would have gone mad long ago—or simply died.

“Impossible…” Now the Empress Dowager’s words had shattered his entire belief system. Everything he had once fought for—Yuan Chunwang screamed like a madman: “Impossible! Impossible! It was you who wronged me! I haven’t taken revenge on the wrong people—I’m not wrong!”

“Guards!” Hongli, having lost all patience with the lunatic, gave a loud command. “Take him away and execute him by lingchi!”

Guards rushed in from outside, bound him tightly with ropes, and were about to drag him off for execution when the Empress suddenly spoke: “Do not kill him.”

Hongli said fiercely, “Empress Dowager! This man impersonated an imperial heir and stirred up chaos—he cannot be spared lightly!”

The Empress Dowager looked at him with profound meaning. “Emperor, this time… will you listen to your Royal Mother? Please?”

Hongli looked thoughtful as he cast a disgusted glance at Yuan Chunwang, then gave a reluctant nod: “Take him away.”

“I am a prince, haha, I really am a prince…” Yuan Chunwang, hair disheveled, was dragged off while muttering to himself the whole way. “My surname is Aisin Gioro, my surname is Aisin Gioro…”

The Empress Dowager recited “Amitabha” and closed her eyes. Hongli no longer looked at him. Instead, he took Wei Yingluo’s hand and said: “Issue the decree—return to the capital at once. Summon all the imperial physicians for a joint consultation.”

STORY OF YANXI PALACE CHAPTERS HOME