Empress in Danger

by Zoey Gong

  “But what will happen to all this when you are gone?”

  Mama shrugs. “Your sisters will all marry well. Mingming is already engaged to a court official.”

  “A Manchu?” I ask.

  “No,” Mama says. “A Han. Can you believe it? The new emperor, Emperor Honghui, has made many changes, including appointing Han people to important positions. It has helped temper a lot of unrest among the Chinese.”

  “Really?” I ask.

  “I have to think you had something to do with that,” she says.

  I shake my head. “Emperor Honghui didn’t know I was Han.”

  “But you still helped him see how important it was that he consider the Han people if he wanted his dynasty to survive. You were a good empress, Daiyu, even if you didn’t realize it.”

  “Then why did you go quiet?” I ask. “I thought you were upset with me.”

  “No,” she says. “No, I was just thinking about Lihua and Mingxia.”

  “What about them?” “Daiyu, are you sure Lihua said that Mingxia was dead?” “Yes. She said that Mingxia’s death was why she went to the Forbidden City. Without her mother, she had nothing on the outside.”

  Mother presses her lips tightly for a moment before speaking. “Mingxia is alive.”

  “What?” I ask after sitting dumbly for a moment and waiting for Mother’s words to sink in.

  “We haven’t seen Mingxia since the night…since the night she took you from us. But we have…kept tabs on her. She owns a house not far from here. She’s very much alive.”

  “But…then why would Lihua lie? Why would Lihua tell me she was dead?”

  “I don’t know,” Mama says. “That’s what worries me.”

  I try to shrug it off. “But Lihua has what she wants now. She has the emperor’s son and I’m gone.”

  “But you said that Honghui would never make her empress. And several of the other concubines are pregnant. If any of them have a son, he could make that child his heir ahead of Lihua’s child.”

  “What are you saying?” I ask harshly. Honestly, I don’t want to think about this right now. I’m home, finally, where I belong. I just want to enjoy this while I can and not worry about Lihua and her horrible mother.

  “Lihua wants to be empress,” Mama says. “She has already killed two people, including the dowager! She wanted to see you swing from a white scarf. Don’t you think she will do whatever it takes to get what she wants?” I sit back in my chair and fidget with my fingers. If Honghui holds true and refuses to appoint Lihua as his empress, there is only one way that Lihua could become empress—she would have to kill the emperor.

  And she would have to do it soon. Before another son is born. If Lihua were to kill Honghui now, while her son is Honghui’s only possible heir, then she would be made the dowager empress by default. She would rule all of China in her son’s name until he came of age. And even after her son became emperor, she would wield considerable influence over him.

  Pain wells up from my stomach to my heart and tears fill my eyes. I’m not exactly sure why I’m crying. Many reasons, I suppose. I’m worried about Honghui first of all. What if he’s already dead? No. If that were to happen, the news would travel quickly. I can still save him. But that means going back. It means leaving the family I only just now found.

  “I don’t want to lose you again,” I say.

  “Oh, Daiyu,” Mama says. “You’ll never lose us. Besides, you told Honghui the truth, didn’t you? Things will be different this time. And Mingming’s husband will be a court official. You will surely be able to see her.”

  I nod and wipe the tears from my eyes. Yes, things will be different this time. Better.

  “But what can I do?” I ask. “I don’t have any evidence that Lihua is up to something? I can’t even prove that the child is not her son. It’s just my word against hers.”

  “If you want to stop Lihua, you have to be just as ruthless as she is. She would kill you if she could. Can you say the same thing?” “I’m not going to kill Lihua,” I say.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Mama says. “It’s your life on the line here. Are will willing to do whatever it takes to survive? To save the man you love?”

  I let out a long exhale. I don’t know what Mama is planning, but whatever it is, I hope I have the courage to follow through.

  31

  My heart beats thunderously in my chest as I approach the west gate of the Forbidden City. The little vials Mama had given me threaten to weigh me down like an anchor as they sit in the pockets of my sleeves, one in the left sleeve and one in the right. Am I really going to do this? There are so many ways things could go wrong. But if I have any hope of getting rid of Lihua, saving Honghui, and retaking my rightful place as empress, I have to take the chance.

  It is twilight, with the sun setting and shadows long. I wear a cape with the hood pulled low to cover part of my face. My hand shakes as I approach a guard and hand him a note along with several large coins.

  “This message must be delivered to the eunuch Jinhai at once,” I whisper to him. The guard squints and bends forward to try and get a better look at my face. I turn aside and pull my hood closer. “Hurry! The message is urgent!”

  The guard hesitates, but I suppose he finally decides that sending a note isn’t very risky. It isn’t like I am bribing him to let me into the palace.

  “Wait here,” he says. He then whistles to another guard who is standing on the other side of the door. “I’ll be right back.”

  The other guard nods and moves to the center of the doorway, a better vantage point from which to keep an eye on everything, I suppose.

  “Who are you?” the now lone guard asks me.

  I take a few steps away and don’t answer. The less he knows, the better. Every second that ticks by is agony. Is Jinhai going to come? What if he can’t get away? What if he can’t sneak me into the palace? What if he’s been arrested for the role he played in helping me escape? What if he’s dead?

  I’m nearly to tears, worrying about all the terrible possibilities, when the gate opens and Jinhai steps out. He looks around eagerly, and when he sees me, we run to each other and embrace like the old friends we are.

  “My lady! I’ve been so worried about you. I’m so glad to know you are safe.”

  “I’m fine,” I tell him. “Hurry, I need to get into the palace. I have a plan.”

  “Of course,” he says. He starts to lead me by the hand, but then he quickly releases me. It wouldn’t be proper for a eunuch to be seen touching a woman.

  “Step aside for my honored guest,” Jinhai tells the guards. The guards glance at each other, but there is nothing they can do to stop us, so they do as they are told.

  Once we are back inside the great red walls, we have to be even more cautious. The guards would not have been familiar with my face even if they had seen me, but here in the Forbidden City, and especially the inner court, everyone will know who I am. Jinhai leads me to one of the many small palaces that have remained empty for so long since Honghui has so few concubines.

  “Why did you come back?” Jinhai asks once we are safely inside and the door is shut. I can’t help but shiver. Since the building isn’t being used, there is no fire to chase away the chill or bring light to the darkness.

  “The emperor, is he all right?” I ask.

  “Yes. He’s fine. Well, he is clearly despondent. He clearly misses you. I think his sadness is making him ill.”

  “Ill?” I ask in alarm. “What do you mean?”

  “He’s been tired lately, weak. And he can hardly keep any food down.”

  “When did this start?” I ask.

  “The day after you left,” Jinhai says. “How long have you been gone? Four, five days?”

  It took a couple of days for Mother to procure the vial for me, and then another day to travel back to Peking. But it seems as if I did not come back quickly enough. Once I escaped, Lihua must have realized the danger she was in. Her plan to
see me swing from the end of a white scarf had failed. She was probably poisoning the emperor little by little. If she did it all at once, there was a greater risk of her being caught since his food could be tested for poison that strong. But if she was only giving him little amounts of poison every day or at every meal, the end result would be the same, but it would be harder to blame Lihua for it.

  “Is Liling preparing the emperor’s food?” I ask Jinhai. I need to know how she is getting him to ingest the poison.

  “No, of course not,” Jinhai says. “Do you think Liling would ever step foot into a kitchen?”

  “Then, is she fixing his bowl for him?” I know I’m grasping at straws. Honghui knows how dangerous Lihua is, or he at least suspects it. Why would he let her get close enough to him to poison his food?

  “I don’t think so,” Jinhai says, but then he goes quiet, thinking. “She is present for most of his meals. She insists. She says that with you gone, he needs someone watching over him.”

  I pace the room, thinking. I then remember how she poisoned me. “The tea! Is she preparing his tea?”

  Jinhai’s eyes go large. “Yes! She usually does prepare his tea for him.”

  “Don’t you see?” I say. “The emperor isn’t sick. He’s dying. Liling is poisoning him.”

  Jinhai practically spins on his heels to run to the door. “We must warn him!”

  I grab his sleeve. “No! Stop. We must remain calm. It’s only a small amount. No one would be able to detect it. If you accuse her of such a crime without evidence, you’ll be arrested for treason.”

  “Then what can we do?” Jinhai asks.

  “I have a plan,” I say. “But I need to be present when Liling and Honghui are eating. I need to be there when she prepares his tea.”

  “What are you going to do?” Jinhai asks.

  I reach into my right pocket sleeve and hand him one of the vials. “I’m going to drink the poison.”

  “No!” Jinhai says. He tries to pull away from me, but I hold his arm fast.

  “I have to! It’s the only way. This is the antidote. As soon as I stop breathing, once I appear dead, pour it into my mouth. But be discreet! I don’t want anyone to know you are involved. It should revive me.”

  “Should?” Jinhai asks with a gulp.

  “Well, I’ve never tried it before. But I have it on good authority that it will work.”

  “Oh, my lady!” Jinhai whimpers, and for a moment, I feel bad asking all this of him. If anything goes wrong, if I die, he will surely blame himself. But what else can I do? I can’t do this alone.

  “Snap out of it!” I say, shaking him. “Stop sniveling. I need you!”

  He sniffs and wipes his nose with his sleeve before clearing his throat. “Yes. Yes, my lady. I can do this. I’m sorry.”

  I place my hand on his shoulder to help calm him. “There is no need to apologize. I’m scared too. But I have to do this. Liling has taken everything from me, but she won’t be satisfied until she is the empress. And the only way she can do that is by killing Honghui. I can stop her.” “By killing yourself?” he asks, his face gray with fear and worry.

  “I won’t die,” I say. “I know I can count on you.”

  “You put too much trust in me, my lady,” he says, dropping his head and shaking it in shame.

  “You put your trust in me first,” I say. “You saw potential in me that no one else did. You and Suyin. The only reason I ever became empress was because of you two. You believed in me then. I believe in you now.”

  His eyes water. “I miss Suyin. I wish she were here now.”

  “Me too,” I say, doing my best not to cry. I need all my strength now to do what has to be done. While thoughts of Suyin make us sad, I think they also give us strength. She wouldn’t want me to fail.

  “What do you need me to do?” Jinhai asks.

  “Sneak me into the room where Honghui and Liling are eating,” I say. “I need to be there when she poisons his tea.”

  “I can try hiding you among the kitchen maids when they serve his food,” Jinhai says. “But it might be difficult. You might be recognized.”

  “Even if I am, the maids should hold their tongues, don’t you think? It wouldn’t be proper for them to speak in the emperor’s presence.”

  “That’s true,” he says. He fetches a kitchen maid’s uniform, and then he styles my hair simply, leaving it loose around my face to try and hide my features as much as possible.

  “It will have to do,” he says. I follow him to Emperor Honghui’s kitchen, shuffling my feet and keeping my face down. Hardly anyone looks our way. Who really looks closely at a servant? In the kitchen, I watch as dozens of maids line up to take one of a hundred bowls of food to the emperor’s dining hall. The maids deliver their bowls and then rush back here to deliver another one. When there are only a few bowls left, I grab one and insert myself in the line. The girl I cut in front of gives me an annoyed look.

  “She’s new,” Jinhai tells her.

  The maid nods and goes back to her business of carrying her bowl. Jinhai walks alongside me as we walk from the kitchen across palace grounds to the emperor’s palace. My hands are shaking so terribly, I am afraid I will drop the bowl I’m carrying. When we enter the dining hall and I see Honghui, I stop. He looks terrible! I fear he could die at any minute. Why does no one seem worried about him? Where are his doctors?

  I forget what I’m supposed to be doing, so Jinhai takes the bowl from me and pushes me aside. Along one wall, several maids have lined up to await any orders from the emperor. If he wants more rice or a certain food, the maids are ready and waiting to do his bidding. I shuffle to the end of the row and watch.

  Honghui is sitting at the head of the table. Lihua is seated next to him on one side. Yanmei is also there, sitting across from Lihua, so her back is to me. A couple of the other pregnant concubines are present as well. They are all chatting happily, but worry is clearly etched on their faces. I suppose they are attempting to cheer Honghui up, but his health is clearly in a bad place. I only hope it is not too late for him to recover.

  Lihua motions toward a maid, who then carries over a tray of tea things.

  “The doctor prescribed a new medicine for you,” Lihua says as she puts some tea leaves into a pot and then fills it with hot water. “It is sure to make you feel better.”

  I keep a close eye on her as she prepares the tea. I don’t see her slip anything extra into it, but I don’t need to. For a moment, I worry that Lihua isn’t poisoning Honghui. What if he really is just terribly sick?

  I can’t worry about that now. It doesn’t change my plan. As soon as Lihua hands the teacup to Honghui, I step forward.

  “Stop!” I yell. Everyone looks at me and gasps. The teacup in Honghui’s hand shakes, and I fear he will drop it, ruining everything, but he at least has the soundness of mind to put the cup down on the table.

  “Daiyu!” Honghui says and he manages a smile.

  “What are you doing here?” Lihua asks.

  “I’m here to stop you from poisoning the emperor!” I declare.

  There is a new round of gasps from everyone present. Lihua’s eyes go large and her mouth gapes for a moment.

  “How dare you?” she says. “Guards, arrest her!”

  The guards have entered the room, but they don’t immediately follow her orders.

  “I am still the empress,” I say, holding my hand out to the guards. “Something you will never be.”

  “Be careful, Daiyu,” Lihua says through gritted teeth. “You know that I can destroy you.”

  “Not anymore,” I say. “I know that you are poisoning the emperor, and I can prove it.”

  “What?” Lihua shrieks. “This is preposterous!”

  “Your majesty,” I say to Honghui, “give me your cup.”

  Lihua reaches for the cup herself, but she is too far away, so Honghui snatches it up first. He then holds it out to me, his hand shaking. I take it from him with my left hand and try to s
neakily reach into my sleeve with my right hand.

  “Everyone saw Liling prepare this tea, did they not?” I ask. Everyone sitting around the table nods their heads and looks to one another for confirmation. I use the moment that no one is looking at me to open the vial and tip its contents into the cup before hiding the vial in my sleeve again. It only takes a second, but it feels much longer to me. I think that I must have been seen, but no one says a word. Lihua looks at me, her nostrils flaring.

  “To your long life, Liling,” I say, holding the teacup out to her. Her eyes narrow, but I see a smirk on her mouth. She knows that whatever she put in the cup will not be strong enough to hurt me from only one drink. She thinks that nothing is going to happen and that I am the one who will look the fool. I only hope I retain consciousness long enough to see the look on her face.

  I drink the poisoned tea.

  It tastes terrible! I grimace and flick my tongue in and out in an attempt to rid it of the acrid, dirty taste.

  Lihua humphs and crosses her arms. “See? Nothing. Arrest her!”

  At that, my whole body seizes. My vision goes black and my brain feels like it is on fire. I’m on the ground, shaking, and I can feel foam or drool coming out of my mouth. Everyone screams. I can’t see what is happening, I can’t react, but I can hear everything.

  “Daiyu!” Honghui is over me, shaking me.

  “No! No!” Lihua screams. “It wasn’t me!”

  I hear more screaming and crying. My throat closes and I can’t breathe.

  “Daiyu! Daiyu!” Honghui is crying now. But I don’t hear Jinhai. Where is he? What if he can’t reach me? I then realize that in the panic, the guards are probably holding everyone back. There is a stabbing pain in my chest and my lungs feel as though they are going to burst.

  I’m going to die here.

  32

  “Daiyu.”

  I can’t open my eyes, yet I can see…something. The world is fuzzy and gray. There is a light, and someone comes toward me.

  “Daiyu.”

  “No…” I mutter and my eyes water.

  The light gets brighter, closer. No, not the light. A woman. A woman is the light. She’s dressed all in white and the light is coming from her. I can feel her sit next to me and her face comes into focus as she strokes my cheek. It’s Empress Caihong.