When Wei Dongling drifted back into consciousness it was to the familiar dimness of her bedchamber in Yaoguang Pavilion. Cheng Hao and Lamei were at her side; only when she opened her eyes did both of them release the breaths they’d been holding.
She sat up on trembling limbs and frowned inwardly. These palpitations—why were they coming more often? She needed to speak with Madam Ruan and find out what was happening.
“I’m going out,” she told Lamei, waving a hand. “Get me ready.”
Lamei hesitated for a long beat before answering reluctantly, “Your leave token was just revoked, Your Highness. The Emperor was furious—he called you willful and reckless and ordered your exit token taken away.”
The words landed like a blow. Wei Dongling went frozen, mind racing. Of course the Emperor would be furious—she had openly declared, in front of everyone, that she and Yu Zixi had already consummated their marriage. No surprise he’d fly into a rage.
But without the token she could not leave the palace to seek out her uncles or Yu Zixi.
A maid brought a bitter decoction for her wounds; Wei Dongling would not take a single sip. She burrowed into the covers and broke down, teeth chattering with sobs. Lamei darted about, frantic.
Soon Consort Rong and Consort Zhao arrived and gathered around the bed, murmuring sympathy. They tried to calm her in that measured way palace women have—reminding her that the Emperor has a quick temper, advising she not confront him but to go with his tide. They spoke grandly of a princess’s destiny in political marriage, as if that made it any less brutal.
Wei Dongling would not listen. She lay face down on the pillows, crying until her cheeks were streaked.
Noble Lady Shu came in and tried another tack. “If the Fifth Princess is so headstrong, perhaps bring her family elders to reason with her,” she suggested. “They might get through to her. Maybe she’ll even take her medicine.”
Consort Rong could do little but send Cheng Hao at once to fetch Madam Ruan to come stay for a while. Once the others were gone Wei Dongling shooed away the remaining attendants and told Noble Lady Shu everything from the beginning—every insult, every indignity.
Noble Lady Shu’s eyes bulged when she heard that Wei Dongling had confessed to the Emperor about Yu Zixi. “You were reckless—no wonder they took your token!” she hissed.
“I hate him,” Wei Dongling snapped. “That Prince of Xiliang is nothing but a shameless wolf. He toyed with me, and Father and my uncle ignored it, and now they command me to act the obedient daughter and bear his children. How am I to stomach that? I’d slit his throat if I could!”
Shu clapped a hand over her mouth in alarm. “Your Highness—those words cannot be spoken in the palace, not even here! If anyone overheard—”
Wei Dongling pushed her hand away and gripped Noble Lady Shu’s fingers. “Lady Shu, Yu Zixi has returned to Yan Gu Mountain—surely there’s a way to tell him. Please, help me. If Xiliang insists on the marriage I won’t care for being a princess—I want to run away with Yu Zixi.”
Shu drew a long, helpless breath. “I would if I could. But I have uses within the palace. If this leaks and they trace it back to me, the Emperor will have my head—and Master He will not forgive me either.”
Wei Dongling understood; she could not force Shu to risk everything. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Had she known this would end like this, she thought, she should have slipped away when her mother’s enemies were still being dealt with.
“Don’t cry,” Shu softened at last. “I’ll find a way to let him know. But be careful—one wrong step and you could put Yu Zixi in mortal danger.”
Wei Dongling nodded repeatedly, guilt and fear warring in her chest. She regretted every rash word she’d uttered before the Emperor.
Night fell and Madam Ruan finally arrived. Wei Dongling sent the servants away and told her everything again, watching the older woman’s face harden with anger.
Madam Ruan inspected her pulse and shook her head. “Nothing obvious in the pulse. It’s normal.”
Shu piped up: “The Emperor’s physicians say the same. Perhaps a faint chronic toxin—one that would be nearly impossible to detect until it’s too late.”
Madam Ruan’s expression turned grim. “Then I’ll not leave her alone. If it’s poison we must find a way to purge it.”
That night, Wei Dongling clung to Madam Ruan’s waist and would not sleep. Eventually Madam Ruan pressed a small red talisman into her palm and murmured, “This was secured from Master Hongming at Lanshan Temple. Keep it on you.”
Wei Dongling was about to object when Madam Ruan dropped her voice. “I put one of my own Gui-Xi pills inside. Take it and you’ll appear dead for three hours—the body grows cold, breath and pulse vanish.”
The thought struck Wei Dongling like a spark. A staged death—if someone from the outside cooperated, she could make a clean escape. She could trick them all and slip away.
She tucked the talisman close to her skin and hugged Madam Ruan so tight the older woman laughed softly. Only then did both of them allow themselves to sleep.
Early the next morning Consort Rong summoned Madam Ruan. Wei Dongling knew the Consort’s aim: to have Madam Ruan whisper sweet reason into the girl’s ear until she meekly accepted the Xiliang marriage. Madam Ruan, who had steadier nerves than Wei Dongling, answered all of Consort Rong’s requests with cool compliance.
Lamei smiled inwardly; with Madam Ruan here at last perhaps the Princess would take her medicine.
The Emperor’s rage eventually cooled. After a princess has lived her life on the outside, he thought, she might not know how to handle a flirtatious rake like Yu Zixi. A proper season of instruction would do no harm; the Fifth Princess seemed to have calmed too—she took her medicine on time and went to pay respects to the Empress Dowager, accepting the topic of marital alliance without further outbursts. The Emperor gave a small, private nod to Consort Rong’s tactics. She had indeed been persuasive.
With Madam Ruan at her side, Wei Dongling’s palpitations did not flare for a few days.
Then Consort Rong sent two senior handmaids with instructions: the marriage to Xiliang was moving forward and these women would teach the Princess how to serve a man.
Wei Dongling wanted to laugh and wanted to swear. “Do you think I need you to teach me?”
What made her burn all the more was the birdcage someone handed her, a pigeon thrashing inside. The maid leaned close and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper: “On the night you consummate, pretend you’re still a maiden.”
Wei Dongling took the cage, fury and scorn twisting together. Pretend. As if she were a thing to be trained to please another. As if anyone in this palace had ever asked what she wanted.