Chapter 3 — Rebirth in the Cold Palace

The Emperor spoke again, his voice still calm.

“Summon Chief Physician Wang.”

The Noble Consort’s expression stiffened.

“Your Majesty, Chief Physician Wang... he is not on duty today.”

“I said, summon Chief Physician Wang.”

Eunuch Li hurried out to deliver the order. While we waited, I remained on the floor. I could hear the Noble Consort’s breathing grow increasingly ragged. I could hear Imperial Physician Zhang’s teeth chattering.

The plan had veered completely off course.

The Noble Consort could not understand why the Emperor had suddenly begun to care whether I lived or died.

Chief Physician Wang arrived very quickly. After bowing to the Emperor, he laid a silk cloth over my wrist.

“Your Majesty...” His voice was gentle.

“Consort Tong’s pulse is stable. She has only a great deal of internal heat, as if she had taken a medicine with extremely powerful properties.”

He paused before continuing.

“Furthermore, she shows no sign of pregnancy at all.”

The hall fell silent as death.

The Noble Consort screamed.

“That is impossible! She clearly—”

Before she could finish, another voice cut her off.

“Noble Consort, there is no need to keep acting. I know everything about your scheme.”

I slowly opened my eyes, placed my hands on the floor, and pushed myself upright.

The Noble Consort’s face went as white as paper. She glared at me, her lips trembling.

“You... weren’t you already dead?”

4

I wiped the ginger juice from the corner of my mouth and slowly straightened. My knees were weak, so I braced one hand against the edge of the table before finally standing firm.

The Noble Consort looked terrifyingly pale.

“You... how are you...”

“How am I not dead?” I finished for her, my voice light. “Or should I say, how do I know that every three days you have someone drive a needle into my left arm?”

I rolled up my sleeve. Several extremely faint needle marks lined the area near my elbow. Their color had faded, but they were still visible if one looked closely.

Chief Physician Wang stepped forward. After examining them carefully, his expression darkened.

“These needle marks have very clean edges. They were left by repeatedly stabbing the same place with an extremely fine silver needle.”

He turned toward Imperial Physician Zhang.

“The needles used by the Imperial Medical Academy would never leave marks this dense.”

Imperial Physician Zhang collapsed onto the floor, shaking like a sieve.

“The medicine applied to those needles could make a person imagine that she was pregnant,” I said, lowering my sleeve and looking at the Noble Consort. “Nausea, cravings for sour food, a missed period, even the sensation of a baby moving. Am I right, Elder Sister Khuong?”

The Noble Consort opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

I took a bronze mirror from my sleeve. It was only the size of my palm. Strange patterns decorated the rim, and its surface was unnaturally bright, far too bright for an object of this era.

“You placed this mirror on my windowsill.”

I walked to the window and measured the angle.

“At midnight every night, moonlight entered from this direction, struck the mirror, and reflected directly onto my bed.”

Eunuch Li had already led several men outside. Before long, they returned carrying an exquisite bronze stand. It had a rotating axle for adjusting the angle, perfectly suited to hold the mirror.

“The Western Regions merchants call this a hypnosis mirror.” I lightly stroked the cold surface. “They say that if someone stares at reflected light from a fixed angle for a long time, she will fall into a half-awake state and see... the things she wants to see.”

The hall became utterly silent.

At last, the Noble Consort found her voice again. It was shrill enough to hurt the ears.

“Nonsense! Hypnosis? I... I do not understand what you are saying!”

“Then do you understand this?”

I turned to Imperial Physician Zhang, seized his right hand, and raised his index finger.

“This thin layer of callus. The Imperial Medical Academy’s records state that you specialize in gynecology and never perform acupuncture. So what did you grind to leave this mark?”

The guards immediately restrained Imperial Physician Zhang. Moments later, they searched several objects from his person: an exquisite hourglass whose sand had been adjusted to fall at a particular speed, several packets of strange-smelling incense wrapped in oiled paper, and a handwritten notebook.

One page contained a clear instruction:

“At the third quarter of the Hour of the Dragon, shake the bell seven times and burn sandalwood...”

Imperial Physician Zhang collapsed completely. Tears and snot ran down his face.

“Your Majesty, spare my life! It was... it was the Noble Consort who ordered me to do it! She said it was... treatment...”

“Treatment?” I gave a cold laugh. “What illness was it treating? The illness of my refusing to obediently die?”

I clapped my hands.

The doors opened. The old palace matron entered with a young palace maid. The girl was no more than fourteen or fifteen. She knelt on the floor, trembling so badly that she could barely remain upright.

“Speak.” I looked toward the Noble Consort. “Tell us everything you have done, one thing at a time.”

The maid sobbed until she could hardly breathe.

“I... I was assigned by the Noble Consort to serve in the Cold Palace. Every night at the Hour of the Dog, I had to stand beneath Consort Tong’s window and ring a bell. It was specially made, with an unusually piercing sound. Her Ladyship also ordered me to put a powder into Consort Tong’s food and water. She said... she said it was a sedative...”

“Where is the medicine?” the Emperor asked. His voice was cold as ice.

The maid trembled as she pulled a small paper packet from her chest. Chief Physician Wang took it, placed a little powder on the tip of his tongue, and immediately changed expression.

“Your Majesty, this is a hallucinogen refined from mandrake pollen. Long-term use will cause mental confusion, auditory hallucinations, and visions.”

At last, every clue joined into a single straight line.

I walked toward the Noble Consort one slow step at a time.

“The first time I grew suspicious was when the voice in my head kept talking about the future.” I looked directly into her eyes. “It said the Emperor would introduce new reforms. It said a thing called cement would one day be used to build river embankments. It said firearms would appear on future battlefields. Do those words sound familiar?”

The Noble Consort’s pupils contracted.

“Were those not all your ‘inventions’ after entering the palace?” I pressed another step closer. “You presented a method for making cement. You claimed to have learned how to make firearms in a dream. You wrote the reform memorials yourself. How could a sheltered young lady have such knowledge?”

5

She stepped backward until her back struck the corner of the table.

“I had my father investigate in secret,” I continued. “He asked merchants traveling through the Western Regions and heard of a mysterious field of learning from the far west. It is called psychology. They say that someone skilled in it can manipulate the human mind, make people see things that do not exist, and hear sounds that are not there.”

I paused and let each word fall clearly.

“And you, Noble Consort, fell into the water three years ago and remained unconscious for three days. After you woke, your temperament changed completely and your talents suddenly surpassed everyone else’s.”

The hall became frighteningly quiet.

Everyone looked at the Noble Consort, the woman who had once been the most favored in the six palaces. Beneath the candlelight, her dark red robes made her look like a pool of blood about to go cold.

Then she laughed.