Flowery Hair: A Maidservant

Chapter 548 The Death of Jiang Jie

This Ciyin Hall, used as the residence of imperial concubines in the imperial palace, exudes an inappropriate solemnity.

The red lacquer on the beams and pillars is new, but the floor tiles are still the bluish-gray diamond bricks fired in the imperial kiln of the previous dynasty. The surface of the bricks has been worn smooth by the years, and the gaps seem to still exude the scent of incense.

Looking up, one can even see the traces of a plaque that once hung in the center of the lotus and vine pattern painted on the dome. On the walls inside the flower hall, where statues of deities should have been hung, there are clear square marks, like a huge blank talisman.

It was as if an invisible eye was still watching over the people who had moved into this palace.

Jiang Jie, with disheveled hair and bare feet, clutched the bright yellow imperial edict and stepped across the cold floor tiles, a chill running from his feet straight to his heart.

It's cold.

Even with brocade curtains and dressing tables set up inside the bedchamber, the chilling desolation seeping from between the bricks and beams could not be suppressed.

This place is not like a palace; it is a cold, desolate prison.

"All of you, step back."

She raised her hand, her voice hoarse.

Zhixue knelt on the ground, her face pale: "Your Majesty... let us servants stay with you."

"I have been deposed by the Emperor and reduced to a commoner. I am no longer the Empress, and there is no need to call me 'Your Majesty' anymore. You may leave."

Jiang Jie twitched the corners of her mouth and casually tossed the edict into the charcoal brazier. She was already "full of sins," and after tonight, this one act of disrespect by burning the edict wouldn't make a difference.

When the bright yellow silk cloth came into contact with the scattered embers, it instantly curled up with charred edges and rose a wisp of choking smoke.

The acrid smell of burning silk filled the hall, strangely reminiscent of the prayer flags she burned when she offered sacrifices to her child at the Prince's Palace.

She gazed at the flickering flames and suddenly chuckled softly, a laugh that was particularly eerie.

Luwei and Xingyu, trembling, helped Zhixue to her feet, none of the three daring to approach. The Zhenbei Marquis's mansion had been ransacked and the entire clan exterminated; over a thousand members of the Jiang family, including both main and collateral branches, had been executed. The three of them were servants of the Jiang family; their fathers, brothers, and relatives... were now all dead beneath the blade.

Once the footsteps faded into the distance, the bedchamber fell into complete silence.

A chill seeped into his bones, and Jiang Jie instinctively moved closer to the charcoal brazier.

The flickering embers in the copper basin cast a half-light, half-shadow on her face. She sat there, watching the sunlight slowly move across the lotus-patterned floor tiles.

When the red charcoal in the charcoal brazier burned out and Zhixue quietly came in to replace it, the new charcoal was already black and smoky.

The imperial harem has always been like this: rank and family background determine status, and the emperor's favor determines one's affection. In the past, when she held the imperial seal, all those who served her were of the highest rank; now that she has been demoted to a commoner, even the most basic necessities have become a luxury.

The charcoal was loose in texture and crackled when it burned. With red eyes, Zhixue could only humbly beg the palace steward to get some silver frost charcoal and stuff it into the hand warmer, placing it in her mistress's arms.

As night fell, Jiang Jie still felt a chill run through his body.

She reached out in a daze, her fingertips hovering just before touching the dim light in the basin.

Just like her life over the past twenty years, power, favor, honor, everything that seemed within reach, ultimately turned into nothingness between her fingers.

She was completely unaware of her father's ambitions, the privately amassed armor and soldiers in Shu Prefecture, and the embezzled disaster relief funds.

Even now, she still thinks that since the war in the Northwest was quelled, her father, Jiang Wei, has harbored rebellious intentions and is secretly plotting to overthrow the Gu family's empire.

Her world was too small, so small that it could only contain a small patch of sky within the nine-layered palace.

Her mind was too narrow, so narrow that it could only hold the emperor's favor and the empty title of the harem.

That's why she was so unwilling to accept it.

Unwilling to marry into the royal palace on the same day as Tang Qingwan, who came from a merchant family, and even more unwilling that the ten-mile-long red bridal procession of Tang Qingwan, a mere concubine, could subtly overshadow the splendor of her as the principal wife.

Hatred had taken root in her heart like a poisonous vine the year the two bridal sedan chairs were carried into the Prince's mansion, and it entangled her for her entire life.

Since she can't tolerate it, she has to take action as soon as possible.

However, the concubines Tang Qingwan brought into the manor were quite shrewd. So, she simply resorted to her old tricks, taking advantage of the chaos in the manor on the night of Prince Yu's coup, and threw in a few vipers... Unfortunately, she ultimately failed.

Fortunately, Tang Qingwan did not conceive for a long time, while I was healthy since childhood and became pregnant only half a year after entering the Prince's Mansion.

She was incredibly successful back then; even when her stepmother visited the palace, she was willing to give her a friendly welcome.

However, this good fortune did not last long. In the battle of the southwest, the Tang family made great contributions. After the prince ascended the throne, the merchant's daughter was transformed into the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Lin'an. Upon entering the palace, she was immediately promoted to the rank of concubine.

Although she got to wear the phoenix crown as she wished, she couldn't bear to see Tang Qingwan receiving such favor.

But at that very moment, something unexpected happened to the royal heir she had been longing for.

It was a male fetus that was already formed, with its eyebrows and eyes still faintly discernible.

She would never forget the day she miscarried, the eve of the Lunar New Year. The blood that flowed from beneath her soaked through the phoenix-and-peony brocade quilt, turning the bright yellow into a glaring dark red...

She was healthy from childhood. If she hadn't been plotted against, how could she have lost this child?

It wasn't until Doctor Chu, posing as a nanny by her stepmother's side, entered the palace to take her pulse that she realized that the pregnancy had been tampered with from the very beginning and was destined to fail.

My father said, 'It must have been the Emperor who did it.'

She refused to believe it, but later she had no choice but to.

(Note: The miscarriage was caused not only by the Emperor, but also by Meng Shu's instigation.)

Later, the Emperor personally freed the lowly concubine who served Tang Qingwan from slavery. Meng Shu rose step by step from concubine to Consort Jin, developing a deep sisterly bond with Tang Qingwan. She gave birth to princes one after another, and her favor was unparalleled in the six palaces.

She hates it so much.

I hate the emperor for being hypocritical and heartless.

The Soul Gu was her only chance.

Jiang Jie grew up in the southwestern border region and had personally witnessed a person who, after being poisoned by a great shaman with a soul-devouring curse, became a completely different person. A completely unfamiliar soul resided in that body.

A mad idea began to grow in her mind: she would make Tang Qingwan and Meng Shu's two children taste the bitterness of being puppets! Even... at her father's behest, she would use a love potion-laced dew on the Emperor; since love was already gone, then they would be destroyed together...

But to her utter surprise, Doctor Chu suddenly disappeared, and the ghost woman who refined the main Gu was also assassinated.

Even this last chance was denied her by fate.

There was still a tiny ember in the charcoal brazier. Jiang Jie walked barefoot across the cold floor tiles and stood by the window, gazing at the pale light of dawn outside.

A quarter of an hour later, she slowly walked back to the bedside, tore off a wisp of gauze from the curtain, and leaned down to get close to the embers in the charcoal brazier.

A tiny spark touched the light gauze, and suddenly a burst of flame erupted!

Flames, like living creatures, climbed upwards along the gauze curtains, greedily devouring the draped brocade tents. The fire spread rapidly, thick smoke billowing and rising with the heat, turning the hall a blood-red hue.

"Fire! Quick, save the Empress!"

Outside the palace came the mournful cries of Zhixue and the other two, accompanied by the chaotic sounds of banging on the door and the footsteps of palace servants running.

In the scorching heat, the beams and pillars groaned under the weight. A snake that had been hibernating in the crevices of the palace corner was awakened by the flames and suddenly darted out in the rolling heat, its fangs biting into Jiang Jie's exposed ankle.

The excruciating pain made her stagger back.

In the firelight, she suddenly remembered that this was one of the passages that Tang Qingwan had ordered to be placed in the palace when she was pregnant and sought refuge there.

The cycle of cause and effect had returned to her in such a tragic way at this moment.

She gazed at the towering flames, burst into laughter, a manic and shrill laugh, which was eventually drowned out by the deafening roar of the collapsing pillars.

On the day of Renwu in the twelfth month of the third year of the Zhenghe era, Empress Jiang, who had been deposed, committed suicide by self-immolation in the Ciyin Hall of the Changchun Garden Palace.

Upon hearing this, the emperor remained silent for a long time, and then ordered that the deceased be buried with the rites due to a commoner.