"Sick? I think you’ve gone mad!" Liu Che barked, shoving Ajiao away.
Liu Che considered himself a lenient emperor toward his concubines. Usually, when they employed petty schemes in the harem—feigning illness to lure him for a visit—he thought nothing of it. But Ajiao was the Empress; how could she cause such a scandalous scene?
"You were always a jealous creature, but these past two years, I thought you had finally settled down and learned sense. Instead, you’ve become even more outrageous! Do you have any idea what a laughingstock this is? By tomorrow, who knows what rumors will be spreading through the court! Have I neglected you all these years? Have I not stayed at the Pepper Chamber every single month? And yet you—month after month, there is no news; year after year, you fail to conceive. Is that my fault? Is that why you must throw these life-and-death tantrums? With this behavior, how can you possibly be the Mother of the World!"
Ajiao stumbled from the force of his push, collapsing onto the floor. She listened blankly as Liu Che's rebukes rained down upon her, one after another.
The more Liu Che spoke, the more agitated and furious he became. But Ajiao couldn't process a single word. All she wanted, in that moment, was for someone to hold her.
"Liu Che, can you just hold me?" Ajiao asked.
The palace attendants were all kneeling on the ground, none daring to utter a sound. Seeing Ajiao sitting on the floor in silence, Liu Che felt a surge of helplessness. He didn't want to look at her anymore. "From this day forward, you will stay in the Pepper Chamber and reflect on your faults. Do not leave. As for palace affairs, they shall be temporarily handled by the Empress Dowager."
Only after Liu Che stormed out did the attendants dare to step forward and help their mistress up.
Liu Che returned to Xuanshi Hall, his anger still simmering. He washed perfunctorily and went to bed, but sleep eluded him. It wasn't until the dead of night that Yang Deyi suddenly arrived with a report: The Empress had caught a chill, was burning with a high fever, and had lost consciousness.
Liu Che had no choice but to rise, dress hastily, and rush back to the Pepper Chamber.
***
Ajiao sank to the bottom of the lake. Silt lay beneath her, and fish darted through her spectral form, wandering through the water.
She remembered that time. She had been unconscious for three full days; the Empress Dowager had even ordered the funeral wood to be prepared.
Fortunately, she had woken up.
And then... she had gone to find Chu Fu.
If only she had been more clear-headed then, if only she hadn't sought out Chu Fu, perhaps none of the later tragedies would have happened. Perhaps she could have remained securely in the position of Empress, living out her days in a daze until death.
*"Ajiao, there is no need to use your life to threaten me. I know there are rumors in the palace, but since I promised to make you my Empress back then, I can tell you now: as long as you keep to your place, for the sake of the Grand Empress Dowager, my aunt, and our years as husband and wife, you may remain Empress. The legitimate son you bear in the future will be the Crown Prince."*
Those were the first words Liu Che had said to her after she regained consciousness.
*"I can no longer have children."*
That was the first thing she had said to Liu Che.
At the time, her mother and Wang Zhi were by her side, both utterly shocked. Liu Che, too, looked as though he couldn't believe his ears.
But she had felt a strange sense of relief.
Wang Zhi had hesitated to speak, and her mother had remained silent. As for Liu Che, he had left a hurried "I have government affairs to attend to" and fled.
Ajiao felt that the Liu Che of that moment looked very much like a man in full retreat.
Ajiao lay at the bottom of the water, her thoughts drifting aimlessly.
It wasn't until the sun vanished that she rose to the surface. She looked at every palace in the imperial complex, one by one.
Changle Palace had been vacant for many years. In the fourth year after Ajiao had been deposed, Wang Zhi had died.
The furnishings of the Pepper Chamber were also vastly different now.
Ajiao sat on the windowsill of the main bedroom in the Pepper Chamber, looking at the familiar yet strange world outside. Wei Zifu lay behind her; Ajiao could hear her long, steady breaths.
Only Xuanshi Hall... she suddenly didn't want to go there.
Suddenly, Ajiao felt her collar being seized. The world spun for a moment.
When she finally managed to stand straight, she found herself in a bedroom of some unknown palace. Two people were fast asleep on the bed.
Yun He stood beside her.
"Sigh, the day is almost up. I saw you wandering around in circles and figured you couldn't find Liu Che, so I brought you straight here. No need to thank me!" Yun He grinned.
*...I don't particularly want to thank you,* Ajiao thought.
*...And I don't want to see him either.*
But Ajiao forced a smile onto her face. "Then we should—"
The world suddenly went dark. Yun He’s voice cut off her "go back" before it could leave her throat.
"I reckon you don't know how to enter a dream, so this young master will help you out again. Just think of a scene, any scene, and hurry up—your Emperor is about to enter! Don't worry, I won't peek!"
Ajiao felt the smile on her face freeze. *Can I kill this person? Can he just let me finish a sentence?!*
*Can he?!*
Ajiao watched as a human silhouette slowly manifested in the darkness.
The surrounding scenery shifted, transforming into the Pepper Chamber as it had looked years ago.
"Oh, you're too slow!"
Ajiao felt a throbbing pain in her head. The melancholy that had risen from her memories was mostly dissipated by the annoyance.
Liu Che felt himself drifting in a daze. When he looked around, he was shocked to find himself in the Pepper Chamber.
*Tsk, what am I doing here?*
A woman stood in the garden, dressed in simple cloth robes, her hair tied in a single thick braid hanging down her back. This was not the attire of the palace.
It looked more like the garb of a peasant woman doing chores in the countryside.
The Pepper Chamber was also strangely empty.
Liu Che felt something was very wrong.
"Who are you?" Liu Che barked. He reached for his waist, only to realize he wasn't wearing his sword.
He was wearing nothing but his inner robes!
From a distance, Ajiao watched Liu Che. He was the picture of guarded suspicion, mixed with a hint of awkwardness.
Judging by his words, he didn't seem to recognize her.
See? This was the so-called bond of a long marriage—in the end, they met as strangers.
Liu Che’s appearance had changed much from the past. He was older, his hair was graying, and he even had a bit of a belly.
Ajiao remembered when they were first married; she had teased him, saying that if he grew a potbelly like other men when he got old, she wouldn't like him anymore.
Ajiao suddenly looked down at her own attire and felt a bit of awkwardness herself.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
*...What should I say? That I'm your dead first Empress?*
"Aya, why are you just standing there? Hurry up, hurry up! You have less than fifteen minutes left. Whether you want to cry, laugh, hit him, scold him, kiss him, or hug him, can you just get on with it?" Yun He’s voice piped up again.
Ajiao took a deep breath and chanted internally: *You can't beat him, you can't beat him, you can't beat him!*
Liu Che stepped closer, suddenly finding the person before him incredibly familiar. He had seen her—he must have!
A name was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't grasp it.
Ajiao steadied her emotions. Suddenly, she thought of the night she had jumped into the lake—the night she told Liu Che she was sick.
"Liu Che, can you hold me?" Ajiao said.
Liu Che was bewildered.
The woman before him suddenly stepped forward and pulled him into a brief embrace. Then she let go, turned, and walked into the hall.
Liu Che was even more confused.
Could it be some concubine trying to seduce him with this bizarre act? Ridiculous. This was the Pepper Chamber; what was the Wei woman doing, letting someone run wild here?
Liu Che strode into the hall, only to find that the furnishings were different from what he had seen recently. Yet, they were deeply familiar.
The woman was sitting on the dais in the main hall.
"You..."
"Chen Ajiao," Ajiao sighed softly. She felt that if she didn't answer him, he would keep asking forever.
Liu Che felt a wave of dizziness. He sat down on the nearest mat.
Wasn't Ajiao dead? Just a few days ago!
Ajiao was dead!
Liu Che bolted upright. Ajiao was indeed dead... then the person before him was a ghost!
"Today is the seventh day after my death. I came back to see an old friend, and... I happened to run into you." It truly was an accident.
Liu Che: *...Could you be any more 'accidental'? Just like before, always reckless and never thinking of the consequences!*
"Oh," Liu Che responded, not knowing what else to say.
He looked at Ajiao from the side, and her image in his mind gradually became clear. But she was different from the woman before him. In his memory, Ajiao was always noisy, and for a few years, she had become increasingly temperamental. She had given him such headaches. If it hadn't been for the hope that she would bear a legitimate heir, he wouldn't have wanted to visit the Pepper Chamber at all—after all, every time they tried to be intimate, they would inevitably end up fighting.
He even remembered the time Ajiao had jumped into the lake in a fit of rage and remained unconscious for days. When she woke up, she told him she couldn't have children.
After that, Ajiao had come to Xuanshi Hall to attend to him once, and then she never sought him out again. He hadn't bothered to look for her either. Since she couldn't conceive, why go to her just to argue? It was better to favor other concubines and get a son.
Thinking of that period made Liu Che's head ache. An Emperor without a son meant the foundation of the state was not established. Back then, he had been so anxious he couldn't sleep at night.
He had desperately wanted a son. He had worked so hard to become Emperor; was he supposed to pass the empire to someone else's child in the end?
Liu Che couldn't accept that.
A flood of memories left Liu Che feeling a sense of melancholy. He looked up at Ajiao; she was still sitting there quietly, merely fiddling with her braid.
"Ajiao, go in peace. Do not linger in the mortal realm, and do not haunt me. I had your funerary goods prepared most lavishly. Just stay comfortably in the underworld." Liu Che wasn't so afraid anymore as he spoke. Ajiao must have been unable to let go of him, which is why she came back. But she was dead; the living and the dead walk different paths. She shouldn't cling to him.
"I..." Ajiao suddenly wanted to laugh, so she did. "I finally see you, and you just want me to leave? Che'er, what if I said... I am not resigned?" Ajiao didn't know if these were her true feelings or if she just wanted to tease him.
Liu Che didn't speak. He suddenly became alert. What kind of place was this? He secretly surveyed his surroundings while stepping forward with a smile.
"Ajiao, I naturally cannot bear to part with you either..."
"Forget it." Ajiao watched Liu Che approach and suddenly found it utterly tedious. He was clearly calculating and testing her, yet he insisted on putting on a show of deep affection. Had he not even had a favorite lady in recent years? His current performance wasn't even as sincere as the way he used to coax her back then.
"Ajiao..." Liu Che grew irritable.
"Do you remember? The year I fell into the water, the fourth year of Yuanguang." Ajiao turned to look at him.
Liu Che sat down beside her. "I remember." He remembered it very well; after all, that was when he learned she was infertile.
"That day, I told you I was sick. I really was sick!"
"I know."
Ajiao looked up in surprise.
"You said you couldn't get pregnant anymore!" Liu Che added.
Ajiao couldn't help but sigh again. "It wasn't that. Back then, I... that is, later, when I lived in the Southern Palace after being deposed, I had a... clouded malaise."
*A clouded malaise?* Liu Che was bewildered.
"From the time I fell into the water, I... often wanted to die, even..."
"Weren't you just trying to get my attention?" Liu Che interrupted. He knew that during that year, Ajiao had often acted out, even seeking death. But wasn't that just to get him to visit her? His mother had said that such life-and-death theatrics in the harem were merely common tactics to gain favor. For Ajiao to do so was a grave breach of decorum.
That year, Liu Che felt that his affection for her as a husband had been completely eroded by her constant tantrums.
Ajiao ignored his words. "Later, at the Southern Palace, my condition grew worse. Even though my mother sent people to care for me, she wasn't at ease. That's why she begged you to let me leave the palace to recover."
"..." No wonder his aunt had been so adamant about Ajiao leaving the palace back then. Being a deposed Empress sent out of the palace was a great dishonor—it was practically the same as being returned to her maiden home in disgrace.
"At Changmen Palace, my mother found many physicians and indulged my every whim, fearing that if I were unhappy, my illness would worsen. After several years, I slowly recovered..." Before she could finish, Ajiao felt herself being violently jerked backward.
In the blink of an eye, she was back at the crossroads of the Yellow Springs.
"Ajiao!" Liu Che saw a hand suddenly reach out from behind Ajiao and drag her into a black hole.
"Ajiao!" Liu Che snapped awake.
Lady Yang was a concubine who had only recently gained favor. She had been sleeping soundly when she was suddenly startled awake, hearing the Emperor beside her calling out someone else's name.
Lady Yang couldn't help but pout. "Your Majesty, what is it? Please, go back to sleep." She reached out to embrace him.
Liu Che shoved her aside and threw back the bed curtains. "Ajiao! Ajiao!"
"Your Majesty, who are you calling for? I'm right here!"
Yang Deyi, who was on night watch outside, heard the commotion and rushed in. He saw the Emperor barefoot, searching everywhere and calling for "Ajiao."
Ajiao!
Yang Deyi shuddered. "Your Majesty, you must have had a nightmare."
A dream? Liu Che stopped and looked around. This was not the Pepper Chamber.
Ajiao was already buried. Was it really just a dream? "It was a dream."
Or was it? Did Ajiao feel he had misunderstood her in the past and specifically returned to explain?
Lady Yang held Liu Che’s clothes, wanting to lean in and act coquettishly, but she was blocked by Yang Deyi, who took the clothes from her hands.
Lady Yang pouted unhappily and gave a soft huff.
Liu Che calmed himself, realizing he had lost his composure. But his heart was filled with unease.
Perhaps he should go see for himself.
"Change my clothes. We are going to the Pepper Chamber! Wait—summon the 'Divine Lord' and the Marquis of Letong."
Liu Che commanded after a moment of reflection.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
椒房殿 | Pepper Chamber Palace | The traditional residence of the Empress.
宣室殿 | Xuanshi Hall | The main imperial residence and workplace of the Emperor.
长门宫 | Changmen Palace | The palace where Empress Chen was exiled.
神君 | Divine Lord | A title for a medium or shaman favored by the Emperor.
乐通侯 | Marquis of Letong | A noble title.
迷症 | Clouded Malaise | A term used here to describe a state of mental illness or depression.
头七 | The Seventh Day | The seventh day after death, when the soul is believed to return home.
母仪天下 | Mother of the World | A phrase describing the Empress as a moral exemplar for the empire.
嫡子 | Legitimate Son | A son born to the legal wife (the Empress).
