The winter that year was a rare scene of serenity, as if echoing *Tanxiang's exhausted soul. Due to a bout of cold wiping out it's inhabitants the autumn before, the courtyard before her was silent as a tomb.
And a tomb it shall become for me, soon enough. Tanxiang echoed, her weathered features twisting in agony as she doubled over with yet another fit of hacking coughs.
It had been seven months ago, when the palace guards burnt the last corpse, she realized that she had the cold as well. What an experience to remember, watching her fellow exiles withering away before her eyes, only to find out that she too, would join them in eternal rest.
Her gaze swept over the courtyard. The ground was blanketed with a glimmering veil of silvery white. Here and there were remains of crumbling stone sculptures or smashed ceramic tanks that would've been filled with water in case of a fire. In the very middle of the courtyard stood a lone plum tree, so gnarled and withered it seemed to stretch out to claw at the steel grey sky.
Serenely quiet, yet strangely beautiful. Just like the garden back home that evening, in the spring before she entered the bloodstained luxury of the imperial harem.
The scraping of metal bolts roused her from her reverie, followed by the muffled crunching of footsteps coming closer to the pavilion. At last. Tanxiang thought, her cracked lips twisting into a faint smirk.
From what she recalled listening to the chatter of the maids outside the locked palace gates, it was the winter solstice today. As with tradition, a grand banquet with the attendance of the high ranking noble families was to be held in the Hall of Supreme Principle (太极殿 tài jí diàn). It must be quite the spectacle, even more so with the Empress having birthed yet another imperial prince.
It was a time of festive celebration with family and friends to welcome the new year. A time of happiness and merriment. A time when nobody would care for the fate of a disgraced concubine trapped in the Cold Palace.
Well, all but one person, that is.
'So... you're here.' Tanxiang murmured. Snow was falling, sparkling white specks that melted in her outstretched hands.
'Impudence!' A shrill, annoyingly mousy voice screeched. 'How dare-'
'It's fine, Qi'er. I have no interest in the dying struggles of a demon.' A melodic female voice sounded out. A voice extremely familiar to Tanxiang, the same voice that sentenced her to the despair of the Cold Palace five years ago.
'Who would've thought Her Highness would come to see the final breaths of a deposed concubine in the Cold Palace?' Tanxiang stood, slowly turning around to face the intruder of her peace.
**Bai Lian Fang.
No. This woman was not her Lian'er. This was ***Chúnquè huáng guì fēi . The woman who stepped upon countless corpses to rise up second in power only to the Empress in the back palace, and the worst mistake of her short, miserable life.
'I see the years have treated you well.' Tanxiang chuckled, pressing a handkerchief to her mouth as the effort forced yet another burst of ferocious coughs that shook her frail body. The silk came away with a splotch of dark red, its crimson blackness staining the faded embroidery.
'Yes, of course. His Majesty treats me most kindly.' Lianfang smiled, running her bejeweled fingers over her slightly raised belly. 'Such is the reward of the virtuous consort who exposed the demon that plagued our glorious nation, thus protecting her dearest husband from danger.'
The sight of Lianfang's pregnancy made Tanxiang's blood roil. The memory of her crying babe was still fresh in her mind. It seemed only yesterday when she looked down into the innocent eyes of her son. Her pride and joy. And now...
Tianxiang's fingers curled into a fist, the blunt nails digging into her flesh. 'I am not a demon.' She hissed, each word laced with every ounce of fury and contempt that she could muster.
'You can't blame me, jiě jiē. All those butterflies always fluttering around your palace? Your proclivity for fireworks to gain favour with His Majesty? I'd be a fool not to use it. Especially since you dared to wrestle His Majesty's favor from me!' Lianfang spat, her eyes cold and mocking, the very mask of a victor.
'But why? Was my destruction not enough for you? How could you frame my brother for treason? Why my family? What is it that you truly want?' Tanxiang demanded, struggling to stay upright.
'The Nangongs**** have always been a thorn in our side. You are no exception.' A steel tight grip clamped down on her chin, forcing her to look upwards, forcing her to investigate those once-familiar eyes. 'The only difference is that you were only one stupid enough to think otherwise.' They were as beautiful as she remembered, almond shaped with a little beauty mark in the corner of her left eye. The same eyes that marked the beginning of her nightmare.
'It is your destiny to rot away like the fodder you are.' Tanxiang was tossed to the ground, her head crashing into the pillar of the pavilion. 'Be grateful for this honor, jiě jiē. You were the first, and last person I've had to kill with my own hands.'
Lianfang's laughter sounded overhead. A tinkling, girlish laugh that made Tanxiang's head spin. Something warm and wet was flowing down her forehead, a throbbing sensation that spread down her limbs and made it like they were full of lead. No... was she truly dying like this, weak and powerless while her assailants remained untouched?
It was very cold, so much colder than when she spent her first winter in the Cold Palace. Her fingers brushed lightly against her cheek. They came away with a sticky, vivid red. She remembered that red extremely well. Her hands were stained with that very same red as she cradled her maid, Xiao'li, that winter, her tearful eyes darkening like a snuffed candle as the last bit of life left her frail body.
No... not like this. She is a proud daughter of the Nangong house. In her veins flow the very same blood that ran through the proud soldiers that guarded the southern borders of the mighty Empire. Soldiers must not surrender. A true soldier's death is a glorious one, serenaded upon the sounds of ruination of one's enemies.
She clawed at the ground, her blunt fingernails digging into the curved grooves of the stone floor beneath her. Her eyes scanned her snowy surroundings, settling on the retreating back of that treacherous woman. Her posture steadied, using the chair beside her to pull herself to her feet. Her vision cleared, and her mouth curled into a victorious smile as she pulled a long, sharpened, jade hairpin from her hair. It was a beautiful thing, the shape of a peacock clutching a pea-sized gemstone in its' beak. Her first and last gift from the distant shadow she called her father.
A true soldier's dies a glorious death, his words echoed in her head, strengthening her resolve for that one fatal blow.
Go to hell, you b*tch.
She plowed forward, like a bull set loose, striking her target with the force of a battering ram. A piercing scream punctured the serene silence of the Cold Palace. Down fell Bai Lan Fang, the bright red of her clothes a spinning blur as she tumbled down steps like a marionette whose strings were cut.
'Help! Help! There's been an attack on the Imperial Noble Consort! Someone help!'
Those cries were a fading murmur to her now. Tanxiang laid motionless, her soulless eyes wide open, a trickle of blood running down the corner of her smiling lips. The last view she saw was of snowflakes fluttering down like plum blossom petals from a steel grey sky.
Ah... she thought, what a beautiful winter it is.
________________________________________________________________________________
* Tanxiang reads in Chinese as (谈祥 tán xiáng）which translates as 'to talk/discuss of peace'.
**Lianfang reads in Chinese as (怜芳 lián fāng) which translates as 'to pity flowers/fragrance'. The surname is (白 bái), which means 'white'.
*** (淳 chún )means 'honest, simple, pure, kind' and (悫 què )means 'honest, dignified, respectful, cautious'. Both are extremely popular words for use in concubine titles. Basically, the bitchier you are, the nicer your titles get.
**** The surname is (南宫 nán gōng), basically translates to 'south palace'. No further meaning behind this one, it's just a really common nobility surname I've seen being used in other gongdou stories.