The long-awaited pregnancy had become a nightmare. While countless concubines envied Li Jiubao's fortune, she herself sought sterilization.
Medicine for sterilization absolutely could not be brought into the palace. Wei Caiwei needed to return to prepare the medication and secretly smuggle it inside. She wrote a dietary menu for Chen the Agent, instructing him to gradually add meat dishes according to Li Jiubao's physical condition. Remembering the robust women of the grasslands, she mandated that Li Jiubao drink a cup of warm milk each morning, noon, and evening.
After giving these instructions, Wei Caiwei boarded a blue-curtained carriage to leave the palace. She had entered during early summer, but now departed in the height of summer. The weather was stifling and overcast, pressing down so heavily that swallows flew low, foretelling an impending storm.
Just after the carriage passed through the Eastern Six Palaces, a eunuch from the empress's household was waiting at the crossroads, announcing that Empress Chen summoned her.
The empress being her sovereign, Wei Caiwei descended from the carriage and proceeded to Kunning Palace.
When she first met Empress Chen, she had been the impoverished wife of Prince Yu, secretly pawning jewelry to sustain their household. Now elevated to empress, she remained simply dressed, her hair adorned with no more than three types of ornaments—all to please her husband, the Longqing Emperor.
The Longqing Emperor was notoriously frugal, mending and continuing to wear his dragon robes when they tore, as each robe cost ten thousand taels of silver to produce, and he couldn't bear the expense.
Just as the King of Chu favored slender waists, leaving his entire kingdom gaunt, and the King of Wu loved swords, making his warriors value death lightly, the Longqing Emperor's thrift meant his consort must follow suit. To maintain her reputation for virtue, Empress Chen had to practice even greater frugality than her husband.
Wei Caiwei paid her respects. Empress Chen received her with relative courtesy, granting her a seat and dismissing all attendants, clearly intending a private conversation. Yet she remained silent for a long while. With only the two of them present, the empress abandoned her performance of virtuous modesty, her serene features revealing an intimidating authority meant to overawe Wei Caiwei.
"You interfere too much," she said. "Were it not for you, Li Jiubao would not have survived this summer."
In the harem, women wielded weapons that weren't blades. Li Jiubao's womb had provided the imperial family with two healthy heirs—that was enough. The empress would never permit a breeding tool to potentially rise above her in the future.
During the Chenghua era of the Ming dynasty, Emperor Chenghua's birth mother, Empress Dowager Zhou, had completely suppressed Empress Qian. After Empress Qian's death, she even persuaded her son Emperor Chenghua to forbid Empress Qian's burial with her husband, the Yingzong Emperor, reserving that space beside him for herself.
The Yingzong Emperor had been captured by the Mongol Tatar Tribe following the Tumu Fortress Incident, while his younger brother ascended the throne. Empress Qian had knelt and begged the new emperor to rescue her husband, crying until she went blind and kneeling until her legs became crippled. When Yingzong miraculously returned and successfully restored his reign, court officials held the disabled Empress Qian in high esteem.
With her health broken, Empress Qian could not bear children, so Noble Consort Zhou's eldest son was designated crown prince. After Yingzong's death, Noble Consort Zhou's son ascended as Emperor Chenghua. Two months later, Empress Qian died of overwhelming grief. Yet Empress Dowager Zhou forbade her burial with Yingzong, intending the space beside him for herself.
This provoked furious protests from officials, who risked death to remonstrate: How could a concubine displace the legitimate primary wife to be buried with their husband? Where were the ancestral laws? The newly enthroned Emperor Chenghua had no choice but to compromise, constructing two burial chambers on either side of Yingzong's tomb, so all three could rest together.Empress Dowager Zhou remained unrelenting, going so far as to construct the passage between Empress Qian’s burial chamber—originally intended to connect with Emperor Yingzong’s—as a dead end, rendering the two tombs permanently separate and their spirits eternally divided. In contrast, the tomb she prepared for herself featured a broad passageway to Emperor Yingzong’s chamber, wide enough for a carriage to pass through.
The tampering with the tomb passages was later exposed, causing an uproar in the court. While everyone despised Empress Dowager Zhou’s actions, reopening the passage between Empress Qian and Emperor Yingzong would disrupt the feng shui and the imperial dragon vein. Thus, the matter was left unresolved, and Empress Qian’s spirit was forever barred from reuniting with Emperor Yingzong.
Not only that, in the Hall of Ancestral Worship, where the ancestors were honored, Empress Dowager Zhou removed Empress Qian’s portrait and memorial tablet from beside Emperor Yingzong’s. Despite being the legitimate primary wife, an empress, and an empress dowager, Empress Qian was denied the right to receive offerings from posterity.
With Empress Dowager Zhou’s suppression of Empress Qian as a cautionary tale, Empress Chen, who also could not bear children, naturally saw Li Jiubao as a hidden rival. Seizing the opportunity when Li Jiubao was at her weakest after childbirth, Empress Chen used expensive, overly potent tonics to literally "nourish" her to death.
With her rival gone, she could also gain a reputation for virtue—killing two birds with one stone. Empress Chen vowed never to follow in Empress Qian’s footsteps.
However, all of this was shattered by Wei Caiwei’s arrival. Not only did Li Jiubao survive, but she grew stronger, transforming from a gentle, docile "little white rabbit" into someone who flaunted her favor and became willful. Empress Chen could no longer easily control her.
Because the Longqing Emperor still held hopes for Li Jiubao’s fertility, he indulged her in every way. Those in the palace who fawned on the powerful and scorned the weak flocked to curry favor with her. The Palace of Celestial Favor now rivaled Empress Chen’s Kunning Palace in influence.
Empress Chen had no choice but to endure it, for she was a "virtuous empress" who must be tolerant. Once the mask of virtue is worn, it cannot be removed.
Wei Caiwei sipped her tea. Since Empress Chen remained silent, she did not speak either. Having lived two lifetimes, there was no situation she hadn’t encountered. Wei Caiwei was not intimidated by Empress Chen’s authority; expecting her to kneel and beg for mercy was out of the question!
The gloomy sky rumbled with the sound of rolling thunder, and a gust of wind carrying the scent of damp earth blew in. Finally, Empress Chen spoke, "A heavy storm is approaching. Doctor Wei should find a place to shelter from the wind and rain. They say it’s easy to enjoy the shade under a large tree, but when a storm comes, a tree cannot protect you. You need a sturdy roof."
It was the same old tune about "a wise bird chooses its tree," pressuring Wei Caiwei to take sides.
Wei Caiwei set down her teacup. "The rain is coming, and I must hurry to leave the palace and return home. Let’s speak plainly—I won’t beat around the bush with Your Majesty. Everything I’ve done is merely fulfilling my duty as a physician to heal the sick and save the dying. If Your Majesty were to fall ill, I would also do my utmost to treat you."
"Your Majesty’s concerns are clear to me. After all, with the tragic example of Empress Dowager Qian as a warning, as the legitimate empress, you must take preventive measures to avoid sharing her fate. But, in all honesty, does Your Majesty truly believe Consort Li is as unreasonable and domineering as Empress Dowager Zhou was back then? Your methods this time... I dare say, have fallen short of the mark."
Wei Caiwei was a woman. In her previous life at the palace, she had long grown weary of the suspicion and strife among women. They fought like enraged roosters, but in the end, it was all for nothing—everything hinged on the favor of the one man in the Forbidden City. Why should women make life difficult for one another?"How dare you!" Empress Chen scolded angrily. "What does a mere female physician like you know? I've read the imperial diaries. When Empress Dowager Zhou was still Consort Zhou, she was gentle and compliant just like Li Jiubao, never daring to disrespect the disabled Empress Qian. But the moment Emperor Yingzong died, Consort Zhou leveraged her son's status to rise in power and immediately changed her attitude. Empress Qian was both blind and lame, and died just two months later—who knows whether she died from overwhelming grief or was tormented to death by Empress Dowager Zhou?"
"Now that I'm the empress, mistress of the inner palace, with all four children being raised in my palace, of course she doesn't dare to cross me. But can you guarantee she won't become another Empress Dowager Zhou in the future? Humiliating me both in life and after death!"
Wei Caiwei stood up to respond. "One can know a person's face but not their heart. This humble official dares not vouch for anyone's character. However, I believe everyone has both light and dark sides. Your Majesty has them, and so does Consort Li. The side Your Majesty chooses to show Consort Li will be the side she shows in return. The change we see in Consort Li today—this is the result of Your Majesty's own molding."
Empress Chen snorted coldly. "This is her true nature—the fox's tail can no longer be hidden. Why shift the blame to me?"
Wei Caiwei didn't want to be caught between the empress and her favored consort. Taking either side would mean women making things difficult for women. She advised, "This humble official now deeply misses the impoverished Prince Yu's residence. Back then, Your Majesty pawned your own jewelry to host a banquet celebrating Consort Li and the eight other selected beauties. Everyone knew about Prince Yu's financial difficulties—Yan Shifan had withheld the residence's stipend for three consecutive years."
"Even if Your Majesty hadn't done these things, no one would have criticized you for lacking propriety. Yet you still did it, risking public ridicule by pawning your headpieces and jewelry to show respect to Consort Li and the eight other beauties. Consort Li likewise worked constantly on needlework until midnight without complaint, sharing hardships with Your Majesty. Those were days when Prince Yu's residence found contentment in poverty."
Recalling the past, a flicker of emotion crossed Empress Chen's eyes, but she still said, "It's always easier to share hardships than prosperity. Now Consort Li wishes to ride roughshod over me and compete for supremacy."
Wei Caiwei replied, "Consort Li has borne five children in six years. No one understands the dangers better than I, as her physician. Had her luck been slightly worse, the grass on her grave would already be shoulder-high. She survived numerous close calls, only to nearly be killed by the daily tonics Your Majesty sent. The four children she risked her life to bear have become estranged from her. Your Majesty, even a clay Bodhisattva has some temper. When you push Consort Li toward death, anyone with any spirit would resist. Since death is certain either way, why not fight back?"
Empress Chen retorted angrily, "She has forgotten her place! She's merely a concubine! All children born by concubines are my children! I used her as a surrogate, treating these four non-imperial children as my own, caring for them diligently without a day's neglect. How is that harming them? I was actually elevating them! Consort Li only carried them in her womb for ten months. I provided her with excellent care and nourishment. After their birth, I will care for these children their entire lives. The love of raising surpasses the bond of birth—what right does Li Jiubao have to compete with me? As a breeding tool, this is her destiny. Like it or not, she must accept it."Wei Caiwei said, "Your Highness views Consort Li as a mere breeding tool, believing you naturally hold the power of life and death over her. But Your Highness, when you were first chosen as Prince Yu’s secondary consort, in the eyes of the late emperor and Prince Yu, were you not also just a breeding tool? Why should one tool make things difficult for another?"
Empress Chen retorted, "I am the secondary consort, I am the empress! How dare you compare a mere concubine like Li Jiubao to me!"
Wei Caiwei replied, "The empress is merely a breeding tool of higher status. It’s just that in your position, when you cannot bear children yourself, you have the right to seize the wombs of others. Apart from the crown prince, Li Jiubao’s four other children are all in your hands and close to you. If you remain unsatisfied and insist on taking this to the extreme, remember that walls have ears. Sooner or later, someone seeking fame and fortune will tell the crown prince and the other four children that you were responsible for their biological mother’s death. When that happens, how will Your Highness sustain your position?"
A dangerous glint flashed in Empress Chen’s eyes.
Wei Caiwei remained composed. "If Your Highness wishes to keep this secret and ruthlessly decides to silence everyone, to completely block the ears of those five children in the future, you would need to stain your hands with at least eight to ten thousand lives to see this through to the end. But Empress, you currently lack the means to accomplish this. Since you cannot, it’s better not to start at all. Leave some room for maneuver—it will make future encounters easier. If Your Highness is willing to reconcile with Consort Li, I am prepared to act as a mediator."
"And if I refuse?" Empress Chen said. "You are threatening me."
Wei Caiwei responded, "From the moment you married Prince Yu as his secondary consort, you have always been a wise woman. Even in the most difficult times, you never mistreated those under you. Everyone endured poverty together, and I deeply admire your character. But wealth and status can cloud one’s judgment. After becoming empress, anxiety about the future led you astray for a time. Yet it is not too late to mend the fold after the sheep is lost. The choice lies in your hands: Will it be a fierce struggle between east and west winds, or calm and gentle breezes? A fight to the death where both sides lose everything, or a shared smile that dissolves past grievances and leads to reconciliation? It all depends on Your Highness’s decision."
"Extreme cases like Empress Dowager Zhou are rare. Given Consort Li’s nature, if treated with respect, she will return it tenfold. I urge Your Highness to consider this carefully."
Wei Caiwei left the Forbidden City in the pouring rain. Why must women make things difficult for one another? Are the children Li Jiubao bore truly Empress Chen’s? No, they are all children of the Zhu family.
If Li Jiubao is a breeding tool, then Empress Chen is a child-rearing tool.
Both women are tools of the Longqing Emperor. They have no power to choose whether to bear children or not, to raise them or not.
They can only give birth and raise children, because for thousands of years, this is how all women have lived. They cannot refuse.
The root of conflict between women actually lies with men. Men desire heirs, especially when there is an imperial throne to inherit. The Longqing Emperor needs healthy successors for his throne. To this end, he expects his wife and concubines to divide the labor—some bearing children, others raising them.
However, the system of one wife with multiple concubines is inherently contrary to human nature. Men only care about securing heirs, offering meager rewards and setting women against one another to compete.
Wei Caiwei hoped that Li Jiubao and Empress Chen could reconcile. They are both tools—why should tools make things difficult for one another? In the end, the children do not belong to them. If tools destroy each other, behind the Longqing Emperor stands a long line of tools waiting to replace them. Why make things easier for others at their own expense?
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