The Empress Wears Gucci

42

         All of us stood up, I lifted a finger for Fen Ai to rise. My heart rate started to go out of line. My thoughts started to linger, building up every time I looked around in the room. "How did he investigate that so fast? We don't have much time..."

         "The Empress poisoned her and we have full evidence of it." Chang Ying exhaled.

          I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at her. Until I caught on. 

"It's almost the start of winter. I want you ladies to behave because it's stressful for me. I must tend to Imperial Noble Consort Yang constantly. Physicians have to prepare her medicine in the morning and I have to deliver this medicine."

         It was when Su Yin had her coal hogged. It was when she was shivering because of the lack of heat. I remembered it so clearly now, that it was almost ridiculous for me to forget.

     "The Empress said that she makes Dong Mei's medicine in the morning!" Chang Ying and I both exclaimed, I had two happy fists in front of me. 

         "We'll be fine! We have prime witnesses to get the Empress in trouble," I laughed. "Thank you all!"

         "Great blessings to Your Majesty, happiness and peace to the Empress!" we all chanted, kowtowing as they walked past us. 

          "You may all rise," the Emperor announced, more monotone than the last hundreds of times. 

          There was a deafening silence in the room. Usually, there would be a conversation start-up, but everyone was in grief. Maybe not everyone. Niu Lin, across from me, was busy daydreaming in her mind about something. There was an obvious grin on her face which I refused to ignore. If I didn't know about what had happened, I would've thought Niu Lin had something to do with it with the smile on her face. Why was she even smiling too? What a psychopath, seriously. 

          No one smiled or even looked a tiny bit amused. Their strong empathy for the Emperor must be huge because when the Emperor sat down, they all frowned in unison.

         "As all of you may know," the Empress said, there was a slightly coy expression on her face when she spoke, "Imperial Noble Consort Yang, or Madame Dong Mei, has sadly passed away from childbirth. We shall wear white for a week to show that we are grieving and to show our respect."

        "Does that mean there's an open slot for the title of 'Imperial Noble Consort'?" Niu Lin asked immediately. Niu Lin knew how to spark up uneasy reactions. I looked next to her and spotted another Noble Consort elbowing her gently, but Niu Lin kept her position upright. Even the maids surrounding us widened their eyes in dismay. 

         A Noble Consort next to me, leaned in forward to whisper in my ear. "She dared to ask that..."

         "I know," I whispered back.

         The Emperor calmly, while gritting his teeth, eyed Niu Lin to the point where it just started to get even more discomforting and tense. When the Empress opened her mouth to speak, the Emperor gestured her not to speak by raising his hand. 

          "Niu Lin, your impudence is showing. A fellow woman in the harem has died, and you are worried about rankings?" the Emperor spoke, his voice was deeper and powerful. 

        There was so much restlessness in his eyes. If he wasn't losing sleep over the death of Dong Mei, I guarantee that he would've had her kneel for an hour.