Chapter 23 — Wedding Day Switch: My Husband Traded Me Away

I looked at him, my heart experiencing a violent seismic shock. I knew full well that a genuine storm of blood and flying blades was about to lift its curtain, right here within the deep recesses of the imperial palace.

Standing behind him, I gazed at his straight, pine-like silhouette. Within my chest swelled a profound sense of peace and steadfast assurance I had never known before.

“How does the Prince intend to play this role?”

I asked.

“It is very simple.”

Feng Yuan slowly turned around, the depths of his dark eyes flashing with the cunning intelligence of a fox.

“We shall present a Regent who has exhausted all his ingenuity, burning with anxiety like sitting upon a bed of coals, and whose body and mind have been driven to utter exhaustion by sheer overwork.”

“And beside him stands a loyal minister who spared no effort and drained his very vital essence in a desperate bid to save his sovereign.”

He spoke with total indifference, yet I could readily imagine the sheer mastery of craft required to pull off such a performance. It demanded an actor of supreme skill, alongside an inner fortitude of terrifying proportions.

“And what of this concubine?”

I pursued, wanting to know my part.

“What must I do?”

“You.”

He stared straight into my eyes, his gaze burning intensely.

“Your task is to become a virtuous and dutiful consort, one who worries incessantly for her husband and prays with utmost sincerity for the recovery of our monarch.”

“You must hold the rear flank secure on my behalf.”

“And above all, you must keep a sharp eye on all those treacherous ghosts and monsters lurking both within and outside the Qianqing Palace, with their dark and unpredictable designs.”

With that, he pressed a small, heavy token into my palm, upon which was carved the fierce motif of a prowling tiger.

“This is my personal vanguard token.”

“Holding this allows you to command the entire hidden guard of the royal estate.”

“To see this token is to see myself.”

I gripped the token tightly, marveling at how it still retained the warmth of his flesh. A sudden surge of heat bloomed in my chest. This was unconditional trust, a total relinquishment of life and death into each other's hands.

“This concubine will never fail the Prince’s trust.”

Solemnly, I tucked the token away into my robes. He nodded in profound satisfaction. Then, drawing a small, tightly wrapped leather pouch from his inner breast pocket, he unrolled it. Inside lay more than a hundred golden needles of varying lengths, packed densely together. He extracted the finest of them all, sterilized it swiftly over the flame of a candle, and strode toward the imperial dragon bed. His movements were as blindingly fast as a flash of lightning. With absolute precision, the golden needle plunged straight into an acupuncture point right between the young emperor’s brows. The boy’s body convulsed violently. His complexion, which had still held a trace of healthy ruddiness, began to turn ghastly pale at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even his lips drained entirely of color, and his breathing grew markedly shallow and weak. The sight filled me with a creeping dread.

“My Lord, this is...”

“Rest assured.”

Feng Yuan’s voice remained preternaturally steady.

“I am merely sealing his vital meridians temporarily.”

“It will make him appear as though he is breathing his last.”

“In truth, it causes not even a shred of actual harm.”

So that was how it was. I let out a soft sigh of relief, my admiration for his peerless medical arts deepening manifold. For the next full hour, Feng Yuan remained relentlessly busy within the bedchamber. At one moment he was applying acupuncture to the young emperor; at the next, he was scrawling down staggeringly complex medicinal recipes, dispatching the eunuchs waiting outside to brew them instantly. The entire Qianqing Palace was suffocated in an atmosphere of oppressive tension. As for myself, I faithfully executed every instruction he had given. Sometimes I stepped outside the hall, wearing an expression of profound anxiety as I shook my head sorrowfully at the Empress Dowager and the gathering throng; other times I retreated back into the inner chambers to delicately wipe the artificial sweat from his brow, acting out the role of a consort driven to the brink of panic and utter helplessness to absolute perfection. Finally, when everyone outside was on the verge of losing their patience entirely, Feng Yuan pushed open the main doors. He leaned against the doorframe, his body swaying as though he might collapse at any second, his face far paler than that of the young emperor lying motionless within.

“My Lord!”

I was immediately the first to rush forward, catching him and driving my theatrical performance to its absolute limit. The Empress Dowager and Li Cheng swarmed toward us in an instant.

“My Lord, how fares His Majesty?”

The Empress Dowager demanded in a voice thick with panic. Feng Yuan offered a weak, rattling cough.

“The poison is far too tyrannical.”

“Even after exhausting every ounce of my strength, I have only managed to barely preserve His Majesty’s vital heart meridians.”

“Within seven days...”

He paused, a flicker of profound anguish crossing his eyes.

“If the antidote cannot be found.”

“I fear that...”

“Even the immortals of heaven would struggle to save him.”

His words struck like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky, crashing thunderously against the ears of everyone present. Upon the face of the Empress Dowager bloomed a look of grief so exquisitely calibrated it was flawless. As for Li Cheng and his band of conspirators, though they fought desperately to suppress it, the triumphant flash of wild joy that briefly sparked in the depths of their eyes could not escape my watchful gaze.