Moonlight Over Pear Blossoms - Chapter 1
Two years after a car accident left me in a vegetative state, I transmigrated.
The good news: I was now the legitimate daughter of the chancellor. Wealth and privilege were mine for the taking.
The bad news: she had entered the palace as a consort, but the man she loved wasn’t the emperor.
The worse news: I’d been caught hanging myself.
I looked at the young man before me in a black robe embroidered with gold dragons and wanted to cry.
With an emperor who looked like that, why hang yourself?
Wouldn’t getting into bed with him be a lot more fun?
“Your Majesty, a palace consort’s suicide is a grave offense…” his personal eunuch ventured.
Oh, come on.
The emperor wasn’t worried, but his eunuch sure was. He had to bring up the one thing I didn’t want mentioned.
My heart climbed into my throat.
The man’s thin lips parted. “Grant her wish. Twenty strokes of the rod, then poisoned wine.”
Me: “!”
My heart, which had been hanging in suspense, dropped dead.
An emperor’s heart was the cruelest of all, handsome emperors included. If he was going to poison me, did he really have to have me beaten first?
As the eunuchs closed in, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Your concubine has a crime to report…”
Everyone stopped. Even Emperor Gu Qiyuan halted.
All those hours watching *Empresses in the Palace* hadn’t been for nothing. Lady Qi, you legend!
I seized the chance to run up to Gu Qiyuan.
His eyes were dark and deep as a pool. “What crime?”
His voice was mild, yet it carried enough pressure to freeze the blood in my veins. Frightened, I blurted out,
“Consort Xi is having an affair! The empress killed the empress! Attendant Sun and some madman were rolling around together without a care in the world! Princess Jinghe is the daughter of Consort Hui and Imperial Physician Wen!”
Silence.
Dead silence.
The old eunuch’s voice shook. “Utter nonsense! His Majesty has appointed neither an empress nor a noble consort, and he has no children! Guards, take Consort Jing away!”
The eunuchs converged on me again. Instinctively, I twisted aside and tried to escape between the emperor’s legs…
Uh. I didn’t make it.
Gu Qiyuan caught me by the back of my collar.
With fate gripping me by the throat, my will to live surged. I gave him my most ingratiating smile.
“I… No, your concubine. Your concubine wasn’t trying to kill herself. I was just… just swinging!”
Holy hell, I was a genius. Who said a length of white silk hanging from the rafters could only be used for suicide?
Afraid Gu Qiyuan wouldn’t believe me, I bounded over, leaped, and grabbed the silk. Then I started swinging as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“This is so much fun. Hee-hee.”
The silence from everyone else was deafening.
The old eunuch opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. In the end, he followed Gu Qiyuan out without a word.
I let out a long breath. A little madness, a little stupidity, a little lunacy—whatever kept me alive!
Hupo, the original owner’s personal maid, had red-rimmed eyes. She sobbed as though her heart were breaking.
“Your Highness has gone mad! How is this servant supposed to live without you?”
I turned to her at once. “Yanzi?”
The girl froze, then cried even harder. “I’m not Yanzi. I’m Hupo, Your Highness! Somebody fetch the imperial physician!”
Well, then. One look was enough to confirm she hadn’t transmigrated here with me.
After a few words to soothe her, I collapsed onto the bed and reviewed what I knew.
Gu Qiyuan had ascended the throne at twelve. For the past eight years, his harem had existed in name only. Then, one night a month ago, the retired emperor had gone mad and taken eight consorts into the palace for him in one stroke.
But Gu Qiyuan had no interest in the harem.
The original owner’s title was “Jing.” Below her were Concubine An, Concubine Qing, Noble Lady Ning, Attendant Ping…
The damned emperor had clearly been naming his harem by theme. Put their names together and they meant peace and quiet, quiet and stillness, serenity, tranquillity…
In other words, he wanted every last consort to sit quietly and behave herself.
I grinned. Money, looks, and leisure—what a heavenly life!
Heh-heh, ha-ha, honk-honk…
“Consort Jing! His Majesty summons you to serve him in bed tonight!” A shrill voice rang out from beyond the door.
Me: “?”
My broad grin vanished at once.
Serve him where? In whose bed?
Hupo’s cheeks flushed. Her eyes shone with excitement she couldn’t contain.
“Congratulations, Your Highness! What wonderful news! Why aren’t you smiling?”
I kept my face blank. “Smiling isn’t in my nature.”
What had gotten into that damned emperor?
I grabbed Hupo by the shoulders. “I thought the emperor never summoned anyone to his bed before.”
She nodded. “He didn’t. A while ago, Concubine An was admiring the flowers by moonlight when she happened to meet His Majesty. He said that if she liked flowers so much, she should stay in the imperial garden and look at them to her heart’s content.”
“She had to stand there all night. The mosquitoes bit her until she was swollen all over. Then Attendant Ping was dancing by the lake when she happened upon the emperor. He said her dancing was beautiful and she mustn’t stop. The palace maids had to carry her away after she danced herself unconscious. And Noble Lady Ning…”
I raised a hand to cut her off, even more frantic than before. “Then what is he playing at now?”
I’d shaken Hupo so hard she looked dizzy. She scratched her head. “Perhaps His Majesty likes madwomen?”
Me: “…”
That made so much sense I couldn’t argue with it.
