After making a toast with the emperor, the empress went to the rear hall to meet the officials’ wives. He was very practiced at this kind of work. Each year, it was very simple. Though the saying went that more women made more problems, the empress had such a powerful presence that the ladies didn’t even dare breathe too loudly in front of him. Each New Year’s banquet was extremely tranquil: no one spoke, and everyone kept their heads down as they ate, occasionally exchanging meaningful glances whose precise meanings did not concern the empress.

Without the four consorts to assist by making slight conversation with their mothers or other relatives, the banquets would have resembled a last meal served prior to an execution, with everyone gobbling their food in dread.

This year the four consorts had been demoted, and no one was left who was qualified to join the empress at the banquet. He thought that without the four of them to offend his sight, this would perhaps be the most relaxed New Year’s banquet in history. He could even take his shoes off at the table without being noticed, because no one would dare to raise their head.

But the empress, strolling easily into the rear hall, had underestimated the power of women. As soon as he came through the door, he was surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of ladies.

The wives of the great statesmen were for the most part highborn women themselves. Each and every one was as lovely as a flower. Even the ones who weren’t great beauties were immensely refined and quite well-mannered. They didn’t chatter brainlessly like a gaggle of old gossips in the street; everything they said was full of implications, so that anyone outside their circle couldn’t understand what they were talking about.

In the past, they had been both afraid of the empress and disdainful of him. What they feared was his murderous presence, and what they disdained was his background. Though by position the empress was the most noble woman in the realm, there was no hiding that he came from a military family. He had studied martial arts from childhood, had never read Ban Zhao’s Admonitions for Women, had never attended classes for women, and had certainly never learned the most basic things a woman needed to know before getting married.

To these women, the empress was coarse. They weren’t even willing to make friends with him. And those ladies who weren’t so lofty were too scared by the empress’s aura to make friends.

But this year, they had tossed their awe and fear aside. Each one showed the greatest goodwill toward the empress and strove to be friendly. All these veiled attempts to curry favor were a little astonishing to the empress.

What had caused these lofty ladies to try to make friends with a vulgar person like him?

Though he didn’t understand why their manner had changed so much, the empress still sat firmly in his chair and gave each one a murderous look. But contrary to his expectations, they only trembled for a moment, then persisted in approaching him.

The empress didn’t understand what they were doing it for until the wife of the chamberlain of the Court of Judicial Review gave him a painting. It showed rolling grasslands and fat cattle and sheep, with text written in the daintiest possible regular script. It was obvious at a glance this was the work of a woman, and a young one at that, who had never really traveled to majestic places like this. Though the scenery in the painting was beautiful, it lacked the breadth and solitude of true wilderness. No one who had seen the real thing would draw like this; it had to be a copy.

“Pretty good,” said the empress tepidly. “Who painted it?”

“My own daughter,” said the chamberlain’s wife. “She heard that Your Majesty had grown up in Mobei City and had not been back in five years since coming to the capital, so she found a famous painting of the lands around Mobei and carefully copied it to give to Your Majesty as a gift.”

“Oh?” The empress’s smile vanished. While this gift wasn’t valuable, it was very thoughtful, drawn entirely to appeal to him.

Unfortunately, he had already understood why these people were currying favor with him; no good mood was possible for him.

This was for the sake of the selection.

The four consorts all came from families of great worth and nobility. It was impossible for Emperor Jingren not to cause a stir at court by demoting them. This was why, when the courtiers had raised objections, Emperor Jingren had shut them up by offering as his reason the fact that the four consorts were childless after many years and that a harem selection would be held in the coming year.

When a lustful emperor held a selection, censors would be ready to give up their lives to oppose him. But not Emperor Jingren. His harem was exceedingly scanty. Apart from the consorts and concubines who had been accorded ranks as part of his wedding ceremony, he hadn’t elevated any of the palace ladies or visited any of maidservants. He only had a few consorts and the empress; between wives and concubines and willing maids, even his courtiers had more women in their inner chambers than the emperor had in his harem. Adding in the fact that Emperor Jingren had not had children after all these years, and that the imperial physicians had said there was nothing physically wrong with him, it meant that the problem must lie with the women of the harem. It was the wisest possible course of action to hold a general selection now!

Most importantly, the positions of the four consorts were vacant, and while the empress enjoyed the full benefit of the emperor’s respect, an empress who had not produced an heir was no more of a threat than a paper tiger. If one of these wives were to send her daughter to the palace, and that daughter were to give birth to a prince, then it would be a colossal honor and bring endless benefits.

Yet for some reason, Emperor Jingren had proclaimed that the empress would have complete control over organizing the selection. The empress was responsible for everything in the harem; this decision was unassailable. But Emperor Jingren’s meaning was plain: he would not even look at the women who came to the selection, and it would be entirely up to the empress to decide who was given what title.

This was a calamity for the people who wanted to send daughters of first wives, daughters of concubines, adopted daughters, little sisters and half-sisters, and younger cousins. If a girl who came to the palace during the selection gave birth to a prince, she would be a threat to the empress’s position; it was impossible for the empress to select girls who were too beautiful, too crafty, or too well-supported. Meanwhile, sharp-witted observers had guessed the sole purpose of selecting women to enter the palace: to give birth to a prince who would be raised by the empress. The child would be kept while the mother was discarded; entering the palace would only end in tragedy for any girl.

Despite understanding this, some people were too blinded by greed to stop themselves. Perhaps a girl who entered the palace would whisper tender nothings into the emperor’s ear, receive imperial favor, be given a consort’s title, and gain the right to raise her own child? With enough effort, anything was possible. They could worry about it once the girls had been selected.

So, in the face of the empress’s nearly overflowing murderous aura, these women still struggled closer in order to demonstrate their loyalty to him, to tell him that if their daughters were chosen, they would be well-behaved and know their places; they would have absolute respect for the empress and harbor not a trace of selfish ambition. This way, during the selection, the empress would choose their daughters, and look after them when it came time for them to wait upon the emperor.

Unfortunately, all their attempts at flattery failed.

Looking at all the gifts they had brought—paintings and screens and vases and double-sided embroidery—the empress smiled coldly. His fingertips brushed the drawing of the grasslands, and with a slight exertion, the paper turned to dust.

All the women in the room were stunned. What had just happened?

The chamberlain’s wife turned white. She knelt and said, “B-b-but it was drawn on the highest quality paper. How could it turn to dust at a single touch? Could the owner of the stationery stand have tricked me with shoddy goods? Did he sell me old paper? My Lady, I…”

“There’s nothing wrong with the paper,” said the empress calmly. “I have merely always been rather strong. When I was young and couldn’t control my strength, I often broke household utensils. Sometimes when I was in a bad mood, I wanted to pound my fists against a tree like the neighbors’ daughter, but instead I accidentally knocked down the tree that had been planted at my father’s birth. The painting was very good. Unfortunately, I am simply too strong, and the paper was too fragile. It couldn’t withstand my strength.”

The women were appalled.

They were all familiar with the empress’s murderous aura, but they hadn’t realized that he could really murder someone!

Surveying all the thoughtful gifts, the empress tapped each one very slightly with a finger. It was clear that this was the gentlest touch, but screens came apart, vases shattered, and pearls cracked.

After ruining all the presents with a single finger, the empress lifted his hand and let out a faint sigh. “I do want to control my strength, but sadly I truly am too strong. These gifts…simply cannot stand the strain.”

He was looking at the gifts, but everyone knew it was their precious, delicate daughters he was talking about.

The ladies gulped. Their hearts were bleeding from the sight of their daughters’ painstaking gifts turning to dust. It wasn’t the gifts themselves they cared about, but their daughters, who were to enter the palace.

Looking at the chamberlain’s wife, still kneeling because her legs were too weak to support her, the empress said with an apologetic look, “I really did not mean it. Please do not blame me, Madam Qin. Won’t someone come and help Madam Qin up?”

At his order, Little Shunzi, who had just been given to the empress by Emperor Jingren, stepped forward, trembling, and helped the dumbfounded Madam Qin back to her seat.

Seeing that everyone was now quietly seated and had stopped trying to come forward, the empress said in satisfaction, “The coming year’s harem selection, during which His Majesty has charged me to choose women to enter the palace, is being held to promote the longevity of the dynasty and the perpetuation of the imperial bloodline. Because of this, my requirements for the girls taking part will not be high: no restriction on background, so long as their family records are blameless; no restriction on appearance, so long as they are not disfigured; no restriction on talent, so long as they are well-educated and show a sense of judgment. Most importantly, these girls must be able to give birth easily, to spread the seeds of the imperial family. Do you understand me, ladies?”

They understood: the empress had decided to monopolize the harem, not giving anyone the faintest sliver of a chance of being promoted. The girls chosen would be average in background, appearance, and accomplishments; they only needed to be capable of bearing children. If their talented and beautiful daughters were brought to the palace, they would only end up like the present consorts and concubines, unable to hold their heads up to the end of their days.

The whole hall once again took on the hush of previous years. No one dared to speak. They ate in silence with their heads down, not bothering the empress again. They all understood what was happening, but whether it would be enough to convince them, or whether they would dare to press forward despite knowing the dangers, remained to be seen.

Fortunately, the empress wasn’t expecting total obedience. Right now, he only wanted to eat his New Year’s Eve dinner in peace and quiet. He didn’t want to watch as these people tried to foist their daughters on Emperor Jingren.

While the empress’s New Year’s Eve passed peacefully, Emperor Jingren was having an exceptionally exciting time.

The reason for this, naturally, was still the issue of Prince Huainan storming the capital at night with five hundred elite troops. Such an unlucky topic shouldn’t have been introduced in a setting like this, but a censor by his nature is constitutionally incapable of reading the room or the emperor’s mood; otherwise, they wouldn’t all be so eager to ram their heads against pillars to make sure posterity knew of their blamelessness.

When the members of the Imperial Censorate beheld the criminal Prince Huainan taking part in the New Year’s Eve banquet, their expressions already looked grim. But this was a holiday, after all; it would have been unseemly to keep brothers who hadn’t seen each other in years from eating this reunion dinner together, so the censors had restrained themselves, planning to wait and see how Emperor Jingren handled it. Before, when Emperor Jingren had come down like a crash of thunder and chosen principle over family by locking Prince Huainan in the Court of the Imperial Clan, the officials had praised him. Privately they had all remarked that Emperor Jingren was perfectly impartial and wouldn’t protect an imperial kinsmen; he was a wise ruler. So now, while someone from the Court of the Imperial Clan sat beside Prince Huainan keeping an eye on him, they were willing to wait.

Unfortunately, Prince Huainan wasn’t very good at reading people.

There were still over two hours to go till midnight, and the ministers naturally couldn’t be as silent as the ladies before the empress. There was no need to adhere to strict formality on an occasion like this, so everyone started up a drinking game. Most of the officials declaimed odes to merit and virtue, all cleverly arranged to praise Emperor Jingren. But when Prince Huainan’s turn came, as he knew nothing of poetry, he stood and said, “Imperial Brother, I have never been fond of study, and these elegant drinking games are truly not my speciality. Shall I drink a cup as a penalty and perform for you?”

This shouldn’t have been a problem; Prince Huainan could have sung any song he liked.

But what Prince Huainan wanted to perform was throwing darts at fruit.