When he woke again, it was broad daylight. From the angle of the sun coming into the window, it seemed to be around a quarter past nine in the morning. Emperor Jingren opened his eyes to find the empress standing by the window with the sun shining on her, so she seemed haloed in golden light, like a martial deity come to earth.

Emperor Jingren was once again wounded by the descriptive terms that came to his mind. He put a hand to his forehead and noticed that he felt much less dizzy than the night before; it seemed that Imperial Physician Chen was right, and all he needed was rest.

The empress, standing at the window, saw at once that Emperor Jingren was awake and immediately came forward. In a perfectly natural gesture, she stroked his forehead, then looked at Emperor Jingren’s ears. “Does Your Majesty still feel dizzy?” she asked.

With the empress there, the eunuchs and maids in the room didn’t dare speak. Only Imperial Physician Chen strode over and looked at the empress with faint hostility.

Because of the peculiar atmosphere between the two of them, Emperor Jingren only observed in silence.

It was clear, however, that the peculiar atmosphere was one-sided, directed by Imperial Physician Chen at the empress, while the empress seemed completely unaware of his animosity. As polite as ever, she said, “Please examine His Majesty, Imperial Physician Chen.”

This attitude reminded Emperor Jingren that the empress had always been lenient. As long as her servants didn’t violate any fundamental principles and committed only minor offenses, she would merely deduct their monthly wages, not go straight to corporal punishment. While Imperial Physician Chen’s attitude was clear, he hadn’t brought it right out into the open, after all; under the circumstances, the empress wouldn’t reproach him.

His empress was wonderful in every way, only a little too kind-hearted. It injured the empress’s prestige that a mere imperial physician dared to snub her.

Emperor Jingren silently made a note of Imperial Physician Chen’s attitude. When he had confirmed the empress’s identity, he would deal with it.

After Imperial Physician Chen had checked Emperor Jingren’s pulse, what he said was no different from the night before. Emperor Jingren also knew that he hadn’t been seriously injured, so he nodded to the empress, indicating that he really was just fine.

The empress smiled easily. She summoned Xiahe and instructed her to go invite the empress dowager.

If the empress dowager fell ill, as a display of filial piety, the emperor would have to visit her, no matter how busy he might be, and personally administer her medicine to demonstrate his sincerity. But when the emperor was ill, he couldn’t have the empress dowager nurse him. Had she truly done such a thing, Emperor Jingren’s spine would have snapped under the weight of the censors’ chastisements for his unfilial conduct. This was why, even when the empress dowager wanted to sleep in her son’s bed to nurse him, she still had to sit properly in her own hall and endure, pray in the temple for Emperor Jingren’s health, and wait to hear word from the empress.

The empress had sent a message when Emperor Jingren had woken up the night before, but it had been very late, and the maid bringing the message had waited at the door, only delivering the news after the empress dowager had risen in the morning. And the empress dowager knew that the emperor had fallen asleep again soon after waking up, so she shouldn’t go visit yet; but she had made ready to go out later that morning. When Xiahe’s news arrived, the empress dowager immediately got into her sedan and set out.

When she arrived, Emperor Jingren had already gotten out of bed and attended to urgent bodily functions. He had completed his toilette and was eating. He hadn’t had so much as a drop of water to drink for two days, so his stomach was delicate. He could only eat porridge for now.

Seeing the empress dowager arrive, Emperor Jingren slowly got to his feet and took her arm. Looking into her concerned face, Emperor Jingren finally felt his confidence returning.

That was all right; he still remembered his own mother’s face. He hadn’t completely forgotten it like all the rest.

“My son…” The empress dowager caressed Emperor Jingren’s cheek, tears streaming down her face. It was plain that she had been dreadfully worried. Emperor Jingren rushed to console her. With the empress’s reassurances and Imperial Physician Chen saying nothing was the matter, the empress dowager finally stopped crying.

After the meal, the empress dowager wanted to speak to Emperor Jingren. Everyone withdrew from the room. Even the empress was ordered to go rest by Emperor Jingren; after watching over him for two days and three nights, she also needed sleep.

“I have heard that the palace maid who injured you wanted to beg clemency for a eunuch she is friendly with. Why didn’t she go to the six palace departments for that? Even if the six departments couldn’t do anything about it, they could have notified the empress, and she could have dealt with it. Instead she dared to invade the imperial presence. This kind of woman cannot be allowed to remain!” the empress dowager said violently.

While the emperor had been unconscious, that palace maid, whose conduct might be described as an assassination attempt on His Majesty, had been detained in the imperial prison. Without the emperor’s personal order, she couldn’t be punished out of hand. Now that Emperor Jingren was awake, the empress dowager intended to have her transferred from the imperial prison back to the inner palace, where she could be publicly beaten to death as an example.

“It may not be that simple now.” Emperor Jingren gave the empress dowager a brief summary of his conjectures. “If that truly is the case, it will have to be investigated in secret. If a woman so skilled in martial arts was able to infiltrate the harem, the empress…”

Of course, he had no intention of punishing the empress; he only wanted to use this as an excuse to sound out the empress dowager on the subject of the empress.

“If it truly is as you say, as the leader of the harem, the empress will come in for her share of blame.” The empress dowager sighed, and her tone softened. She continued, “But, after all, this is the result of ineffectual supervision among subordinates. You can’t punish the empress on that account.”

It seemed that the empress dowager also had great faith in the empress, and she had just seen the empress, with no sign of surprise. So did the empress really look like that? Emperor Jingren couldn’t quite accept it. He was still convinced that the image of the empress’s appearance in his mind shouldn’t be what it was now, but he just couldn’t remember what she should have looked like. Instead, the empress’s current appearance was making an ever deeper impression on his mind; he couldn’t shake it.

Fair enough. It was impossible to forget even if he had wanted to.

Emperor Jingren told the empress dowager that he would deal with the problem of the palace maid himself. If there really were other people like her in the palace, he wouldn’t spare them.

For now, though, Emperor Jingren decided to let the matter rest. The thing to do was to keep the person behind all this in suspense, unsure of their ground.

In the days that followed, Emperor Jingren did not attend court, but as long as he had time and wasn’t too dizzy, he dealt with the affairs of state that had accumulated. Fortunately, nothing major had happened in the last few days. To the north and the south, matters agricultural and military all remained steady. The hottest days of summer had begun, and good weather was holding in the north, south, east, and west of the State of Xia. This was a great comfort.

Some days later, after Imperial Physician Chen determined that he was well, Emperor Jingren began to attend court again. He spent several days hard at work and at last finished reviewing all the memorials to the throne that had piled up. Then he prepared to deal with the maid.

Shortly after he awakened, he had ordered the Embroidered Guard to perform a careful investigation into the maid’s background; but after toiling for about ten days, the conclusion the Embroidered Guard presented to him was: the said woman’s background was clean. Her ancestry could be traced to the fifth generation. Most incredible of all, the woman Su Huailing had absolutely no martial arts training!

Yes, the Embroidered Guard had tried everything, from testing her to checking her bone structure, and their unanimous belief was that Su Huailing had not a trace of martial skills; moreover, she was very frail, much weaker than other palace maids. She truly fit the adage about lacking the strength to truss a chicken.

Emperor Jingren was stumped.

As he read the words “lacking the strength to truss a chicken” in the note sent by the Embroidered Guard, he felt an inexplicable urge to flip his desk.

So had he been completely wrong before? Had he really been knocked down by a woman “lacking the strength to truss a chicken,” remained unconscious for two days and three nights, and then spent ten days resting before he was fully recovered?

Emperor Jingren thought he felt another dizzy spell coming on.

He pinched the center of his brow, calmed down, and then was once again able to consider the matter.

The investigative capabilities of the Embroidered Guard were beyond doubt, and once that maid was in the imperial prison, it would have taken very little to determine whether she had martial skills. If his bodyguards and the Embroidered Guard couldn’t even determine whether a person had martial skills, then the inner courtyards of the palace might as well be public streets that anyone could stroll through.

So that maid truly had no martial skills, yet she had still been able to reach him despite the efforts of a dozen guards?

It beggared belief.

Emperor Jingren felt that since he had woken up, everything around him had been a little out of control. It seemed that everything was in its rightful place, yet he felt it slipping between his fingers. He didn’t like this feeling.

As he was deep in thought, Eunuch Lian announced from outside, “Your Majesty, the pure consort wishes to see you.”

Emperor Jingren had no chief imperial consort, only the worthy, honest, pure, and virtuous consorts; among them, the virtuous consort’s position was highest, though the pure consort was his favorite. Emperor Jingren was a man, and he appreciated beautiful women. The pure consort was gorgeous, and she had studied dance since childhood. Her waist was so pliant it was as if she had no bones, and she was lithe and graceful in motion, an overwhelming feast for the eyes. A woman like that might occasionally reveal her little plots, and as long as they were ultimately harmless, Emperor Jingren did not object to satisfying her.

But…now that he thought about it, what did the pure consort look like?

He really couldn’t remember her face. Emperor Jingren was curious, so he permitted her to enter. Soon the pure consort came in accompanied by a palace maid.

“Peace be with Your Majesty.” The pure consort knelt delicately and only raised her head when Emperor Jingren bade her, “Rise.” Concern was written all over her small face. She blinked her bright, crystalline eyes, and teardrops rolled down from them. She truly was affectingly lovely.

But Emperor Jingren wasn’t in the mood to delight in her beauty. He only sighed to himself in relief. It was all right; the pure consort’s appearance was completely normal, just what he imagined it ought to be.

“Your Majesty.” With Emperor Jingren’s permission, the pure consort walked up to him and said softly, “When I heard you were unwell, I went every day to Qifeng Hall to pay my respects. I only wished to know whether Your Majesty was well.”

According to palace rules, when Emperor Jingren was ill, only the empress was entitled to stay by his side, while the consorts and concubines could only wait to hear news of him. Of course, most of the consorts and concubines had their own sources of information, but while he had been recovering, Emperor Jingren hadn’t left Chengqian Palace, and he hadn’t summoned the consorts. Presumably they would have needed the empress’s permission to come see him.

Past emperors had rarely acted in accordance with palace regulations. There had been many cases of favored consorts whose positions in the harem surpassed the empress’s. But Emperor Jingren was different. No matter how much he might like a particular consort, he wouldn’t let her have greater consequence than the empress.

The reason the pure consort had been able to come today was that Emperor Jingren had already recovered, so if she wanted to see the emperor in his chambers, she only had to be announced; she didn’t need to rely on the empress.

Her previous attempts to see him must all have been blocked by the empress. Emperor Jingren passed over the pure consort’s dissatisfaction with the empress and her attempt to use this opportunity to lodge her complaint. He said directly, “It is the custom in the palace to pay one’s respects to the empress every day. Neither the empress nor the empress dowager has excused you from paying your respects—isn’t that so? You have been going to pay your respects at Qifeng Hall every day lately? Didn’t you go before?”

The pure consort was brought up short.