Chapter 1: Borrowing Pregnancy to Ward Off Disaster
It was the Lantern Festival in the thirteenth year of Chong Zhao, and Vermilion Bird Street was thronged with visitors, a sea of flower lanterns.
Xue Sui leaned back on the second floor of the Misty Rain Pavilion. On the red clay stove before her, tea water bubbled and steamed. Her eyes were half-lidded, her slender fingers slowly tracing the exquisite picture album.
“The Lantern Festival brings heavenly punishment. The debts owed to me should be repaid now.”
The woman with a bright smile in the picture album was the current Princess Ping Le.
Her ornate robes were woven with peacock feather threads, said to be a fabric that a hundred embroidery women spent three years to produce. With gold thread as the base, every inch was precious. The cost of one feather robe could provide for the people of a county for ten years of abundant food and clothing…
Xiao Zhao softly said, “Young Lady, it’s going to rain.”
Xue Sui acted as if she hadn’t heard Xiao Zhao’s voice, nor did she look at her anxious expression, casually flipping through the album.
—Lu Xi, granddaughter of Grand Tutor Lu Kefu.
—Xie Weilan, daughter of Xie Yanzhan, Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
—Guo Zhaohuai, grandson of Duke of Zheng Guo Pi.
—Yao Wei, son of Yao Hong, Assistant Minister of the Interior.
—You Zhimu, son of You Zhu, Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
Her finger stopped on this page.
Xue Sui’s lips curved slightly upwards, with a hint of a smile, “Rain is good.”
Bang! A huge sound shook the teahouse.
The wine banner on the high platform was knocked to the ground by a dark figure.
Screams erupted everywhere. Vermilion Bird Street was packed with people. The startled crowd scattered in all directions, overturning the small stalls and vendors along the street. The vendors frantically protected their goods, cursing…
“Someone’s dead!”
“Third Master You from Grand Tutor You’s family fell from Qiong Tower and crushed an old servant woman to death!”
The old servant woman was helping a young noble lady out of the rouge shop when she was struck on the head by the man falling from the sky. Her neck snapped, and she died on the spot.
The noble lady was so frightened her face turned ashen. Looking at the sky, brilliantly decorated with colorful flower lanterns, she held onto her maid’s hand, trembling uncontrollably.
“It’s here again, it’s here again!”
On the opposite second floor.
Xiao Zhao craned her neck to look outside, gasping.
“We’re doomed. Young Lady, will Princess Consort Duan believe our scheme?”
Xue Sui looked up at her.
Xiao Zhao patted her mouth and said with a grin, “This maidservant knows her mistake. Young Lady isn’t using a scheme, she’s using justice.”
As she spoke, she clasped her hands together and bowed to the picture album.
“May you all die a terrible death. Xiao Zhao wishes you all a terrible death.”
Xue Sui slowly stood up, tucking the picture album into her embrace.
“Let’s go, let’s go admire the flower lanterns!”
It really started to rain.
The fine threads of rain enveloped the lantern market on the Lantern Festival.
This was the first spring rain of the thirteenth year of Chong Zhao.
Xue Yuechen returned to Prince Duan’s Mansion, still shaken.
Her wet nurse had just died before her very eyes.
The constables from Jingzhao Prefecture said that Third Master You had fallen from the railing of the flying bridge at Qiong Tower after drinking too much. He had survived by chance, landing on the wet nurse, but his limbs were broken, and he had no sound bones. He would be a cripple even if he survived…
Xue Yuechen’s heart was in a turmoil as she paced back and forth in the room.
“Fei Cui, go to Xue Mansion immediately and tell Mother that she must find Sixth Sister before the Prince’s birthday and send her to Prince Duan’s Mansion…”
Fei Cui said with difficulty, “Princess Consort, the First Madam will absolutely not agree.”
Xue Yuechen was restless, “Just say that after my marriage, I have been childless for many years and need a sister from the main family to serve the Prince and add an heir to the Prince’s Mansion…”
Fei Cui hesitated, “Sixth Young Lady was born inauspiciously, and she is of humble birth. How can she be worthy of serving the Prince? Besides… besides, she was so badly injured back then, she might already be dead.”
Xue Yuechen tightly clutched her handkerchief, looking lost.
“I told you to go, so go! Do you want the vengeful spirits to find me?”
Ever since the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet last month, Xue Yuechen had been plagued by bad luck, one incident after another.
First, on the day of the banquet, she was inexplicably bumped into, causing her meticulously prepared birthday gift to shatter on the ground, displeasing the Empress Dowager and causing her to lose face in public.
On the way back to the mansion, her carriage suddenly lost control, and she was thrown out, suffering dizziness and multiple abrasions.
Then, the plum blossoms in the garden withered overnight, dying in the season they should have been in full bloom…
She went to Lingyun Temple to offer incense and avert disaster. Master Jing Kong told her.
“You are destined to be childless, with shallow fortune and weak fate. Without a change, there may be bloodshed.”
She asked Jing Kong how to resolve it, and Jing Kong gave her a suggestion.
“The Princess Consort’s fate of having few descendants is all due to evil spirits at work, preventing the child from being reborn. To change your fate, you must have a blood relative sister take the disaster for you.”
Jing Kong calculated with his fingers and provided the birth date of that woman.
“This woman has a strong fate. With her entering the mansion to take the disaster and resolve it, the Princess Consort can escape this calamity.”
Xue Yuechen remembered clearly that she had many sisters, but only one had this birth date.
Born in anNegative year, Negative month, Negative day, and Negative hour.
It was precisely the sixth sister who was thrown out of the mansion that year, the lowly daughter born to her father and a dancer while drunk.
“Elder Sister, save me, Elder Sister, save me…”
Xue Yuechen could not forget that tender voice.
The eight-year-old child’s feet were tied, and she was hung upside down from the branches in Li Xiang Courtyard. Because her body was thin, her head appeared unusually large. Her body was covered in crisscrossing wounds, with some old dark purple scabs, looking like decaying tree bark stuck to her body.
It was very ugly.
This made her writhe like a worm, convulsing from time to time in the cold wind, occasionally letting out muffled groans of pain…
A group of young boys and girls gathered under the tree, laughing and playing.
“Look at her! She looks like a centipede.”
“Hit the centipede, kill the stinky centipede!”
Fists and wooden sticks rained down. The accumulated snow on the branches fell with the laughter, red and white mixed together. The wind in the courtyard changed its tune, whistling like crying.
At that time, a fleeting thought crossed Xue Yuechen’s mind: a child as lowly as her shouldn’t have to live in this world. If she died early, she would suffer less.
But she was stubbornly determined to live. Time and again, she crawled up from the snow, the latrine, the stinking ditch, barely alive, struggling, wanting to live.
Xue Yuechen did not save her.
Those half-grown children were all noble sons and daughters from the families of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers. Among them was the Emperor’s most beloved Little Princess Ping Le, who was then engaged to Prince Duan and would not cause trouble for herself.
Ten years passed…
Xue Yuechen still clearly remembered the way the child was dragged away. Her body was covered in wounds, her dry yellow hair soaked with blood, her head tilted to one side, her shrunken belly exposed. Her eyes were open, staring at her, dark and black…
Xue Yuechen couldn’t help but shiver.
If she had died back then, who would have taken the disaster for her?
And who would have given birth to the Prince’s Mansion’s legitimate heir for her?
My dears, I, Jin Han San, am back. Are you still here?!
Welcome to the world of 《Ask the Nine Ministers》. In the days to come, I will continue to accompany you, telling stories every day, hahaha…
Xue Sui （suí）
