The next day.
At the break of dawn.
Li Qing got up early and went straight to Consort Ming's quarters. He bowed deeply outside her door. "Little Li greets Consort Ming and wishes her well."
Consort Ming was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites. Li Qing had his eye on her martial arts techniques, so showing up to clean her chamber pot and offer morning greetings was a must.
There was no reply from inside.
"Is there anything you've been craving lately, Your Grace? I can bring it for you at noon," he added.
The reason Consort Ming had been thrown into the Cold Palace hadn't been made public yet, and Li Qing didn't know either.
When someone ends up here for reasons unknown, it usually means they're never getting out again. They get leftovers, plain and simple.
Just as Li Qing was about to speak a third time, a breathtakingly beautiful young woman, seventeen at most, slowly stepped out of the room.
She walked with slow, careful steps. It was clear her legs had been injured.
She looked a little unsteady too.
Li Qing bowed again. "Greetings to Consort Ming."
The young woman stared coldly at him, as if trying to memorize his face. Then, without saying a word, she turned and went back inside.
Li Qing shook his head. Looked like all he got for his effort was a cold shoulder.
Still, it was fine. He had a lifespan of a hundred lifetimes; plenty of time. If things didn't work out with Consort Ming, there were other consorts he could try.
Trade time for opportunity. That was his edge.
Li Qing went into the side room and picked up the chamber pot.
Just as he was about to leave, a voice came from inside the room:
"Wine. I want the good stuff. Drunken Spring."
"Give me a little time, Your Grace. Little Li will bring it to you."
—
Getting ordinary wine wasn't hard, but Drunken Spring? That was another story.
Drunken Spring was a famous label in the capital. In one word: expensive.
Noon.
Eunuch Zhao from the palace kitchens was delivering food through the Cold Palace side gate.
Li Qing slipped him a pouch of silver. "Master Zhao, think you can get me a jug of Drunken Spring?"
This was pretty much all the money Li Qing had.
There was no profit to be made in the Cold Palace. The concubines who ended up here had nothing to their name, and no one was willing to spend money greasing palms in a place like this. Even if a concubine dared to offer a bribe, the eunuchs here wouldn't dare to accept it.
If a consort needed to be taken care of, the Cold Palace eunuchs would make sure it happened.
If a consort wasn't supposed to be taken care of, then no eunuch would dare try.
Take Consort Ming, for example; she fell into the second category. Even Li Qing could only look after her now and then. Most days, whatever food was scheduled for her was exactly what she got. Nothing more, nothing less.
Eunuch Zhao weighed the pouch of silver in his hand. "No problem. I'll get it to you in a month."
After the meal delivery, Li Qing went to the duty room to eat. The others were all talking about Prince Qian's suicide the night before.
"A good man, that Prince Qian. What a shame. I heard he loved the people like his own children, and they adored him in return."
"They say he drank poison, but who knows the truth."
"Careful what you say."
When Li Qing walked in, Wang Li called out, "News just came in. When you bring lunch to Consort Min later, make sure you mention that Prince Qian took poison and died."
Li Qing nodded. He understood what that meant.
Sigh. A parent outliving their child...
He had no love for Consort Min, but losing a son; what parent could bear that?
Prince Qian had a reputation for being a good man. Even in the palace, his name carried a lot of weight.
Back when Consort Min had been still favored, a number of eunuchs in the palace had benefited from Prince Qian's generosity.
Once, when he passed through a province and saw the people suffering, he found out a corrupt official was behind it. Without hesitation, he led his personal guards into the official's mansion, seized his stores, and opened the granaries to feed the people.
He had once charged alone into the mountains and wiped out an entire band of outlaws.
After finishing his meal, Li Qing brought the leftover food to Consort Min.
After yesterday's encounter, she still looked at him coldly. But this time, she ate in silence.
When she finished, Li Qing spoke in a calm, even tone. "News from outside the palace. At midnight last night, Prince Qian confessed he had failed in virtue... and took his own life with poison."
Bang.
The moment she heard those words, Consort Min froze, then collapsed stiffly to the ground. The meal she'd just eaten came right back up, splattered across the floor. Her eyes turned vacant.
A long silence followed.
Then, all at once, she broke down in a wailing sob. "My Qian'er… Qian'er! You damned eunuch, you filthy eunuch!"
She sprang up and began clawing and hitting at Li Qing. He didn't move, just stood leaning quietly against the pillar, letting her strike him.
Eventually, worn out, she turned her fury on Emperor Taikang.
"Your Majesty! He was your own uncle. How could you be so heartless? So cruel! My son…"
She screamed curses at the Grand Empress Dowager, saving the worst of her rage for her:
"You old witch! May you die a wretched death! I curse you; life after life, generation after generation. May you never die well!"
"You dog demon! You filthy, cursed hag, you... damn... demon…"
By the end, she was too exhausted to speak clearly. Her words slurred until she could only collapse on the floor, drooling uncontrollably.
Li Qing quietly cleaned up the mess, then gently helped Consort Min back onto her bed.
Toward dusk, a group of eunuchs from the Imperial Martial Supervision Bureau came into the Cold Palace, carrying a jar.
The eunuchs from the Supervision Bureau charged Consort Min with slandering His Majesty and the Grand Empress Dowager. Then they stuffed her into a jar and turned her into a human pig.
It was at that moment that Li Qing finally understood just how ruthless the Grand Empress Dowager truly was.
There are quicker ways to kill someone. But to turn her into a human pig… that was beyond cruel.
She was once an imperial consort. She'd given birth to a prince…
"Did it really have to come to this?" Li Qing murmured. "Was it worth going this far?"
A hundred lifetimes mean nothing if you're powerless.
I have to cultivate. The only way to protect myself is to become strong.
On the fifth day after being made a human pig, Consort Min died from starvation.
That left Li Qing with just two consorts under his care.
But her horrific death cast a deep, bone-chilling shadow over the entire Cold Palace.
In the two weeks that followed, twelve other concubines, realizing they had no chance of ever leaving the Cold Palace, took their own lives.
Those who hanged themselves from the rafters, at least, died with their bodies intact.
No one wanted to end up like Consort Min.
As the days passed, Li Qing gradually adjusted to this world. Every afternoon, he'd stroll near the Cold Palace's pear garden. Palace maids often practiced dancing and music there. Sometimes, it was said, even concubines came to train. But Li Qing hadn't run into any yet.
Still, the palace maids were just as good. After all, plenty of concubines had once been palace maids themselves.
Life was... smooth.
A month after Consort Min's death, the wave of suicides in the Cold Palace finally began to die down. Only twenty-one concubines remained.
During that time, Li Qing had been constantly worried that Consort Ming might also take her own life. After all, he'd spent everything he had to secure a bottle of Drunken Spring. And she hadn't even had a chance to drink it yet.
Thankfully, Consort Ming was still alive and well.
Exactly one month after his deal with Eunuch Zhao, the bottle of Drunken Spring finally arrived in Li Qing's hands.
Clutching it tightly, he rushed straight to Consort Ming's quarters.
"Greetings to Consort Ming. Drunken Spring is here."
Consort Ming came out of her room, her expression full of urgency and delight, her energy bold and unrestrained. Completely at odds with her delicate beauty.
She took the bottle, popped the seal, and drank straight from the mouth in one long pull. Then she laughed heartily, full of joy.
"Ahh! With a wine like this, I could die without regrets!"
Li Qing stood there in silence, watching as she downed the entire bottle, not wasting a single drop.
That bottle had cost him everything; seven years' worth of savings.
Then she turned to him. "Well? What do you want, little eunuch? I've got nothing left but this body. If you weren't a eunuch, I wouldn't mind giving that to you too."
She looked at him with amused eyes, clearly entertained.
Everyone knew the rule. If someone gives, they're expecting something in return.
He wouldn't have minded the offer. Shame his thing didn't work.
Li Qing swallowed hard, then straightened up and bowed. "I want to learn martial arts. I beg Your Grace to teach me!"
"Heh."
She gave a soft chuckle. "Makes sense. The only thing I've got left worth coveting is my martial arts. Oh well..."
She sighed. "If I hadn't been waiting for that bottle of Drunken Spring, I would've ended my life a few days ago. Leaving behind a legacy before I go… I suppose that's something. Listen closely."
Li Qing bowed slightly, hands clasped in front of him.
"My name is Ming Wei. I was born into a humble family in Yuanzhou and later became a disciple of Daoist Priestess Shengyue. Three years ago, the old witch summoned my master to the palace to 'discuss the Dao.' But when their philosophies clashed, she had Shengyue executed."
"I entered the palace to avenge my master. But the old witch is surrounded by powerful guards. My assassination attempt failed, and I was thrown into the Cold Palace."
She looked at Li Qing with a faint smile. "So, do you still want to learn?"
"I do."
Li Qing was shaken, but he nodded firmly.
So that was it. She had tried to assassinate the Grand Empress Dowager. No wonder her fall from grace had been kept quiet. A consort attempting to kill the Empress Dowager wasn't the kind of story the court would want spreading.
"Didn't expect a little eunuch like you to have some spine," she said. "Listen well. What I practice is called the Seven Forms of Flowing Water. It's a yin-based cultivation technique. Since you're a eunuch, it actually suits you. This technique, when cultivated to its peak, can reach the Xiantian realm. The highest virtue is like water… it is the soft that overcomes the hard..."