Yifan was tense from head to toe. Standing by his mother’s side, he could only stare ahead at the pear tree blossoms despite how uninterestingly white and boring they were. He was too nervous to look anywhere else.

It was true that he refused to meet his concubines mainly because he did not want to become involved with Consort Mei and Consort Wang’s rivalry. However, another big reason was that Yifan was also uneasy about having to deal with his concubines, who as everyone said, were incredibly beautiful. It was rather intimidating, and given how little interaction he has had with the opposite gender, Yifan was nowhere prepared to deal with all five of his new female concubines. It was just too much for him to handle.

Meanwhile, the Empress glanced at her son disapprovingly. Why wasn’t he paying any attention to his concubines? The whole objective of this gathering was to make Yifan gain interest in them. He couldn’t just stare at pear blossoms and ignore his concubines like this. Tired of wasting time, the Empress cleared , “So...I heard that one of your concubines here is especially talented at playing the zheng. Would you like to hear her perform?”

The look she flashed him made it clear that he was only allowed to say yes.

Giving into his mother’s wishes, Yifan gave a small and reluctant nod.

“Good,” the Empress smiled. She turned to face the group of women behind her and fixed her eyes on the one dressed in a mint ruqun. “Consort Princess Su, rumors are that you play the zheng beautifully. I would like to see whether or not the rumors are true. Would you mind playing a piece for us today?”

Huili lowered into a curtsy, surprised. “I-I...of course, your Highness. It would be my honor.”

The Empress nodded in approval as she ordered a group of eunuchs to go retrieve a zheng along with a stool. When they returned with the zheng and placed it in from of Huili, Huili gently lowered herself to the stool provided. The Empress and Yifan stood in anticipation while Mei Ailin and the Wang sisters glared at her. Silan, however, gave her a look of support, and Huili gave a thankful smile in return.

Voice quivering just slightly, Huili announced, “I shall play the piece ‘Chu Shui Lian, Lotus Emerging from the Water’.”

“A good choice. Very fitting,” the Empress commented while sparing a brief glance at the lotus flowers of the nearby pond. Yifan gave a nod of agreement.

Taking in a deep breath, Huili began to play the piece, moving her hands gracefully across the zheng as she strummed and plucked the strings. It was as if her hands were dancing. Yifan closed his eyes and reveled in the gentle, delicate sound of the music. He had heard the piece played before, but he never heard someone play Chu Shui Lian the same way she did. No one had ever managed to capture the softness of the lotus flower so perfectly. Yifan opened his eyes to watch as Huili’s hands began to pick up pace. Just as the song was ending, a breeze blew by and the pear blossoms rained down, swirling and dancing around Huili as she played the last few notes of the piece. Yifan’s eyes widened in awe. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

“Amazing,” Yifan muttered under his breath, unaware that he had spoken his thoughts aloud.

The Empress smiled at her son’s appraisal. “I agree.”

Embarrassed, Yifan quickly stammered, “I-I mean—”

The Empress’s smile grew even larger. “I know what you mean, my son. I’m sure Consort Princess Su does as well.”

To this, Huili gave a small curtsy. Her cheeks flushed warmly as she spoke, “Thank you, my Prince, for the praise.”

Yifan cleared his throat. He gave a stiff nod in return before turning back to stare at the pear blossoms once again, his face burning with embarrassment. The Empress shook her head with a soft laugh. When was her son going to grow up? He was way too shy.

The gathering concluded with the Empress introducing Yifan to the four other concubines, but she could tell that none of them piqued his interest quite like Su Huili did. It seemed like Yifan had finally found his concubine of choice. Glad to know her son had found someone he was interested in, the Empress looked forward to the day when Su Huili would become Crown Princess and stand beside Yifan as his true wife. From the way that Yifan looked at her, the Empress knew the day would come soon.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

but perhaps the day wouldn’t come soon enough

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Mei Ailin stormed her way back to her aunt’s palace. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. Not only did Su Huili fail to carry out her plan, the scheming wench actually tried to seduce the Crown Prince and steal all of his attention for herself. It was completely unbelievable. Ridiculous, even.

“Ailin! You’re back. How did the gathering with the empress go?”

Ailin glanced up to see her aunt standing by the foyer doors. Consort Mei’s eyes shined with anticipation. “Tell me, how did the Empress react?”

Ailin groaned. “Not! Good! At! All! Nothing went as planned! It was a huge mess! All of it! That horrible Su Huili never managed to trip the Wang sisters, so our plan was ruined! And then, oh god, you won’t believe what she did…”

“What? What did she do?”

“That bi—”

“Language, Ailin! You’re a lady of the Imperial Palace.”

“Y-yes, auntie. I mean, uh, that...witch tried to steal the Crown Prince all for herself. She seduced him by playing some annoying song on the stupid zheng, and to be honest, it wasn’t very impressive. But for some reason, the Crown Prince thought it was...” Ailin crossed her arms and huffed.

Consort Mei sighed. “I knew something like this would happen. I knew we couldn’t trust her.”

“What? You did?”

Consort Mei nodded. “Of course. She’s an arrogant little girl. I knew it from the first day I met her. I saw the look in her eyes. She’s ambitious, and she wants to be Crown Princess herself. There’s no way she would be willing to help someone else climb on top of her. She’s too greedy for that.”

Ailin gasped. “So then...why did you pretend to trust her?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure. We did give her enough reason to listen to us, so she might have changed her mind. Besides, we need all the help we can get. If we got both Yu Silan and Su Huili to help us, then you would have no problem becoming a Crown Princess. It’s just such a shame that she decided to go against us. She had so much potential…”

Ailin rolled her eyes. “Well, I don’t see it.”

Ignoring her niece, Consort Mei continued, “At least now we know that we can’t trust her.”

“I wish we would’ve found out sooner. Oh, auntie, I feel so embarrassed. I put in so much effort and I thought everything would go so well, but it didn’t. The Crown Prince didn’t even look at me once! Can you believe that?”

Consort Mei shot her niece a look. “What you went through was nothing. Besides, your ‘embarrassment’ is nothing compared to the knowledge we gained…”

Ailin’s pout deepened. What was that supposed to mean? Why was her aunt also treating her like this? Why was the world being so unfair to her? Could no one understand how embarrassing today was for her? Could no one sympathize?

“...now we know we have to get rid of her.”

Ailin froze, her eyes widened. “W-what do you mean by that, auntie?”

Consort Mei smiled. “What do you think it means?”