Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 39
by Little PandaPower Overwhelming the Court
Deposed Empress 14
Covering the Sky with One Hand
Xin Lan selectively controlled certain people, turning them into her puppets.
One reason was that Soul-Losing Incense was difficult to formulate, so Xin Lan had to use it sparingly—not wasted on insignificant small fry.
Another reason was that the scent of Soul-Losing Incense was too intense. In pleasure quarters like brothels and entertainment houses, it wouldn’t stand out, but if someone suddenly caught such a strong fragrance elsewhere, anyone would grow suspicious.
Fortunately, none of the people Xin Lan needed to control were strangers to those establishments, so she breached them one by one.
Aside from the Commander of the Imperial Guard, she also controlled three other officials in key positions.
In total, she redeemed four courtesans. Three departed for elsewhere, while one chose to remain at Xin Lan’s side—the very first woman she had redeemed, whose name was Qingqing.
Xin Lan had someone redeem her and told her to leave. Qingqing did leave, happily going to find the physician she had set her heart on, hovering around his side.
But before long, Ah Rou discovered her sitting outside the medical clinic’s entrance and reported to Xin Lan.
Xin Lan asked her why she had come. Qingqing looked at Xin Lan, her eyes like a pool of dead water.
“You are a formidable person. I want to follow you.”
“What about that lover of yours?”
“He is getting married.”
Qingqing’s expression was calm, as if she didn’t care at all, but if she truly didn’t care, her eyes wouldn’t be so dim and lifeless.
“He didn’t mind that I was dirty.”
Qingqing said as much.
“But he wants someone clean enough.”
“If you want to stay, then do your job well. I don’t keep idle hands here.”
“Yes.”
As it turned out, Qingqing might not have had Ah Rou’s head for business, but she certainly knew how to handle people.
Every time, she negotiated successfully with the medicine merchants, or sourced from elsewhere whatever Xin Lan needed.
And so the days passed one by one, everything proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Before they knew it, the leaves in the courtyard had all fallen.
When Xin Lan first arrived, it was still the sweltering height of summer. Now, the lotus flowers at the lake where she and Qu Zhian had once gone to escape the heat had all withered.
Autumn gloom lingers, frost flies late; the withered lotus remains to hear the rain.1
The patter of rain drummed against the eaves, then dripped down along their edges.
Xin Lan stood before the hall, watching the curtain of rain outside.
The rain suddenly intensified. The wind whipped up Xin Lan’s hair and the corners of her robes, carrying in a few threads of icy rain.
The wind strains as though uprooting mountains; the rain pours as though a river has burst its banks2—this was no exaggeration.
“The weather is turning cold. Mistress must not catch a chill.”
Chun Yue stepped forward and draped a marten fur cloak over Xin Lan’s shoulders, then stood to one side.
Xin Lan gave a soft murmur of acknowledgment, feeling only that these days were truly rather dull.
Political maneuvering was destined to be a process that forbade impatience.
She had been here two or three months. Aside from making rather large waves in the first month—bringing down Consort Man, controlling a few puppets, corresponding with the Left Chancellor, and coordinating with Qu Zhian—she hadn’t done much else.
The Emperor was far too busy with both the court and the harem to spare any attention for harming her.
The court was slowly, slowly falling under her control. Qu Zhian knew it, the Left Chancellor knew it, but the Emperor remained entirely in the dark.
A month and a half ago, the grand consort selection had begun. The final batch of candidates was placed in Chuxiu Palace, and after many more days of picking and choosing among the beauties, it was finally decided who would stay and what ranks they would receive. The Noble Consort and Consort Xi were busy overseeing the newly arrived women, and the harem grew lively once more. Only Biyue Palace remained as desolate as ever.
Whether it was desolate or not, Xin Lan didn’t care. She was now effectively a forgotten existence, which only made it more convenient for her to slip in and out of the palace.
When the rain eased, Xin Lan went to Qu Zhian’s residence.
Qu Zhian no longer lived in that small courtyard. Her residence had been renovated a month and a half ago, and she had moved in, while the small courtyard she had purchased was rented out to someone else.
“Why come in the rain?”
Qu Zhian saw that Xin Lan hadn’t even raised an umbrella—she had simply walked over. Water droplets clung to her black hair, and water stains covered her clothes and the hem of her skirt. Qu Zhian frowned.
“I’ll have someone brew you a bowl of ginger tea.”
Qu Zhian used a handkerchief to wipe the water from Xin Lan’s face. Looking at those lightly trembling eyelashes, her heart suddenly softened.
“I came now because the rain was easing. Otherwise, looking at this sky, it would have gone on for a long time.”
Barely after Xin Lan’s words faded, a rumbling crash came from outside. The thunder seemed ready to shatter heaven and earth. Black clouds pressed in heavy masses against the horizon, and the entire capital was swallowed by the rain.
Xin Lan looked at Qu Zhian with an expression that said, ‘See? I told you so.’
“Is there some urgent matter that absolutely couldn’t wait?”
“Is Yan Yan not welcoming me?”
“How could that be? Lan’er, you misunderstand me. Your arrival brings light to my humble home—I’m overjoyed as it is. How could I mind?”
Qu Zhian found a clean set of clothes and placed them in Xin Lan’s hands.
Xin Lan didn’t refuse. She stood up and went behind the folding screen to change.
Qu Zhian didn’t leave either, watching the graceful silhouette behind the screen.
“Actually, there’s nothing else. I just wanted to ask how your discussions with my father have been going.”
Xin Lan draped the wet clothes over the screen and changed into the soft, dry garments.
She came here from time to time, so Qu Zhian’s wardrobe also held two sets of women’s clothes in reserve, hidden at the very bottom.
“The plan is proceeding smoothly. The Left Chancellor’s chess pieces are nominally dismantled, but they still serve a purpose.”
“Mm.”
“It’s just that even as a show, the Xin clan has been considerably weakened. When you truly accomplish what you set out to do, will you slowly build them back up?”
Qu Zhian wasn’t surprised that Xin Lan had persuaded the Left Chancellor. On the surface, she and the Left Chancellor appeared to be bitter rivals in court, but in truth, many things had been prearranged.
“We’ll see. I have no such intention. I certainly don’t want to become a second Wu Yanqing.”
Xin Lan recalled her conversation with the Left Chancellor two months ago. It had been an afternoon. She had sent someone to invite the Left Chancellor to a teahouse for a chat. When he arrived and saw that it was his daughter—the one confined to the cold palace—his eyes had nearly popped out of his head in shock.
Xin Lan didn’t exchange pleasantries with him, nor did she feign any father-daughter sentiment. She poured him a cup of tea and got straight to business.
The Left Chancellor’s initial shock and agitation gradually cooled. As Xin Lan spoke, his expression slowly turned grim, and he fell into deep thought.
Xin Lan wasn’t lobbying him. She was laying the facts bare before his eyes.
The Xin clan was inevitably in decline. No matter how they tried to maintain their position, it was futile—he was, at the end of the day, merely a subject. If the Emperor wanted to take them down, what could they do?
She and Xin Long were in the harem—one deposed, the other a mere figurehead. Moreover, the Emperor wasn’t even willing to go through the motions. The original host had accompanied him for five years and still been deposed, so the Xin clan certainly couldn’t rely on the harem to make the Emperor spare them.
Xin Lan told the Left Chancellor that if he wanted to preserve the Xin clan’s lives, he would first have to sacrifice something.
For instance, the power and influence he gripped so tightly—unwilling and unable to let go.
Qu Zhian was currently the Emperor’s favorite, his capable general, his trusted minister. The Emperor treated her as a sharp blade.
What Xin Lan needed to do was make that blade appear even sharper, make the Emperor lower his guard, and then drive it through his own chest in one decisive thrust.
The Left Chancellor was hesitant at first. Seeing this, Xin Lan assumed a hardline stance.
She stated bluntly that Qu Zhian was her person. If the Left Chancellor refused to cooperate, then she would have no choice but to disregard her natal family and do what needed to be done.
The Left Chancellor initially worried that this might be a trap set by the Emperor to goad the Xin clan into voluntarily relinquishing power.
But Xin Lan slowly recounted the original host’s sufferings, one grievance after another. No one hated Wu Yanqing more than she did. No one wanted Wu Yanqing to meet a wretched end more than she did.
At the end of the day, the Left Chancellor was the original host’s father. He had at least watched his beloved daughter grow up. Hearing Xin Lan lay out so much, he was already deeply shaken.
But he still didn’t agree outright. Xin Lan didn’t press him, and the conversation ended there.
Later, Xin Lan ordered her puppets to act according to Qu Zhian’s intentions. Qu Zhian had already become the leader of a new faction in court. She stripped a lucrative post from a Xin clan member, and only then did the Left Chancellor come around.
Over these two months, the Left Chancellor and Qu Zhian had coordinated flawlessly. One pretended to have his power dismantled; the other pretended to be truly exerting herself. This delighted Wu Yanqing to no end. Because of it, he considered Qu Zhian a capable talent and, mindful of her feelings, refrained from taking liberties with her—which spared Qu Zhian some unwanted harassment.
Xin Lan was delighted to see it. She was weaving a beautiful dream for Wu Yanqing—she wanted him happy, wanted him as smug as possible, wanted him laughing as hard as possible. When the dream ended, he would learn how painful the fall truly was.
From the very beginning, Xin Lan had never intended to keep propping up the Xin clan, because what she wanted was her own power—not a force that would attempt to control her. Though the Xin clan was her natal family in name, what use was that? She would far rather see Qu Zhian climb to a position above ten thousand others than let the Xin clan continue perching at a peak.
Xin Lan emerged, changed. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders. When she sat down, Qu Zhian slid a cup of hot tea in front of her.
“If you don’t intend to let the Xin clan rise, then who do you plan to elevate?”
Qu Zhian already knew the answer when she asked, but she still wanted to hear Xin Lan say it—to hear it with her own ears.
“Yan Yan has learned to ask questions she already knows the answers to. In this court, besides you, who else could I trust?”
“Perhaps Lord Xiao, Lord Li?”
Qu Zhian smilingly named a few people—all of them Xin Lan’s controlled puppets.
“But all of them combined still can’t compare to you, Yan Yan.”
Xin Lan propped her chin on her hand and looked up at Qu Zhian, speaking with utmost seriousness.
Qu Zhian’s hand at her side couldn’t help but curl and uncurl, desperately suppressing the pounding in her chest.
Meeting those eyes, she felt an involuntary flutter in her heart.
“Lan’er certainly flatters me.”
Qu Zhian smiled warmly3, not betraying the slightest lapse in composure.
“Just speaking the truth.”
A faint smile on her face, Xin Lan stood up, pushed the window open a crack, and watched the torrential rain outside.
“With rain this heavy, I wonder if it will stop tonight.”
“If it doesn’t, no matter. You can simply stay the night here.”
Xin Lan nodded and continued watching the raindrops, each as large as a bean. The water fell from the sky like snapped pearls, scattering across the ground and merging with other droplets.
In truth, Xin Lan hadn’t needed to make this trip today. It wasn’t as if there was some desperately urgent message requiring a progress update.
She had simply been watching the heavy rain, and suddenly thought of the lotus flowers, and then thought of Qu Zhian.
She wanted to come, so she came.
No particular reason.
Footnotes
- 秋阴不散霜飞晚，留得枯荷听雨声 | qiū yīn bù sàn shuāng fēi wǎn, liú dé kū hé tīng yǔ shēng | A line from Tang poet Li Shangyin's 'Lodging at the Luo Pavilion,' evoking lingering autumn overcast and rain on withered lotus leaves.
- 风如拔山怒，雨如决河倾 | fēng rú bá shān nù, yǔ rú jué hé qīng | A line from Northern Song poet Su Shi's 'Storm at Youmei Hall,' depicting wind straining to tear mountains and rain pouring like a burst river.
- 言笑晏晏 | yán xiào yàn yàn | A classical phrase from the 'Book of Songs' (Shijing) describing someone smiling and speaking gently and amiably.
I wish i can say that i’m waiting patiently for them become lovers
I wish i can say that i’m waiting patiently for them become lovers