chapter 8

Chapter 8

The day Noble Lady Zhao was taken away, she came to my palace.

She gave me a hairpin shaped like a little rabbit, smiling as she tucked it into my cloud-like hair.

“Ah Ning, I truly wish we could be friends.”

Not Noble Lady Zhao and Consort Rong.

But Zhao Panpan and Jiang Ning.

I looked at her in confusion.

“Haven’t we always been friends?”

But she ignored me and kept talking to herself.

It wasn’t until the people from the Department of Strict Punishment came to take her away that I realized what had happened.

I chased after her and asked why, but she only gave me a faint smile.

“Ah Ning, not everything in this world is as simple as you think. Many things are beyond our control.”

What was it that Zhao Panpan couldn’t control?

It wasn’t until after her death that I learned her story from others.

Zhao Shilang was originally a commoner, who first made his fortune thanks to his wife.

Later, he rose through the ranks by selling his daughters.

Zhao Panpan had four elder sisters, all married off as concubines to noble families.

Only she was the exceptional one, entering the imperial palace and becoming a Noble Lady.

But Zhao Shilang was not satisfied.

He threatened Zhao Panpan with her aunt, forcing her to use every means to bear the emperor’s eldest son.

He even sent her a severed finger from her aunt.

Who would have thought that such a minor official could harbor such ambition?

Zhao Panpan never lived for herself.

She traded her own happiness for her aunt’s survival.

She used her life to secure her father and brothers’ future.

In my mind, I couldn’t help but recall Zhao Panpan’s final smile.

It was filled with relief and release.

She probably, truly, no longer wished to live.

A woman who had endured countless hardships and misfortunes, struggling out of the deep confines of the inner residence, forced herself into a shell of innocence and cheerfulness.

Time and again, she deceived herself into believing she was happy, that she was loved.

She was both detestable and pitiable.

When the Noble Consort learned of it, she only sighed softly.

We, who grew up pampered by our parents, cannot judge whether Zhao Panpan was right or wrong.

In the end, I never became a Favored Consort.

In the letter to my parents, I shamelessly denounced their pursuit of glory by selling their daughters.

I even righteously told my father that I would not support him in the palace! He should behave himself and be an honest official.

My father was so angry that the day after receiving my letter, he requested to enter the palace and scolded me thoroughly.

But in the end, my unreliable father suddenly teared up.

He stroked my head, his tone unusually gentle.

“Ah Ning, just take care of yourself. On the court, your father will never bring shame to you.”

“Our Ah Ning has truly grown up.”

I nodded with satisfaction.

“Father has also become much more sensible than before.”

At least this time, he remembered to bring me something; in the past, he always came empty-handed.

Hearing this, my father was so angry he almost kicked me again.

“Raising you has truly been a waste.”

Although he scolded me, I still felt a bit sad after he left.

Especially when I saw the sweet cakes my father brought and the shoes my mother embroidered by hand.

My eyes involuntarily grew misty.

I buried the rabbit hairpin Zhao Panpan gave me under the Hibiscus Tree in the courtyard.

Zhao Panpan, if there is a next life, may you be a happy girl, living only for yourself.