WRITTEN BY HYUGA NATSU
THIS STORY IS A FICTION AND ALL NAMES OF FIGURES AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE FICTITIOUS.
MOREOVER, THE STORY HAS NO RELATION TO REAL-LIFE INCIDENTS AND EVENTS.
That outbuilding will soon be demolished.
So I would like you to investigate before that happens.
The curse that Lady Anshi spoke of.
The reason the late emperor's body remained unchanged from when he was alive.
That is what I want you to uncover.
It has been six years since the late emperor passed.
Once that outbuilding is gone, only his tomb will remain to remind us of him.
If the mystery remains unsolved, Lady Anshi's heart will never be at peace.
Understood. However, I have one request.
A request?
May I enter the room
where the late emperor once resided?
You will have permission.
It is said that the emperor's consent is required,
but if the Empress Dowager intervenes, there should be no issue.
Maomao, your bed is ready.
Thank you very much, Lady Suiren.
Thank you for lending me a room.
It's fine. Don't worry about it.
Surprisingly, she has rather cute taste.
The couch would have been fine.
I can't let you do that. It's been a while since you've been in this wing.
Please rest well.
Yes.
Lately, I've always been at the Jade Pavilion.
Honestly, I'm relieved I don't have to go back tonight.
I wonder how Lady Hongniang would have reacted if I had seen her.
Actually, I've been getting off easy until now.
An attendant who doesn't belong to any specific palace
and shows up in other palaces…
That's not something the palace women would find acceptable.
Sometimes, I don't even understand my own position.
Reading next to candlelight… how luxurious.
Do you want to read something, Maomao? You can go look in the back room.
Books are precious.
I should read whenever I get the chance.
I hope there's something that suits my taste.
Wait for me!
Lady Suiren, you're actually quite young.
Are you curious about that?
Rest assured. I have no intention of stealing anything!
I know that.
Is this a child's toy?
Yes, they were Lord Jinshi's favorites.
Maomao, what do you think of Lord Jinshi?
Huh?
I think he's a good superior.
Mainly because he gives me rare medicines.
Is there some hidden meaning in that?
Well, never mind.
Because he always wanted to play with this one,
I secretly hid it from him.
But when I did, he cried uncontrollably.
There are other toys, you know.
No! I want that one!
Only that one will do!
Gaoshun struggled
to find a new toy that would stop him from crying.
Why did you take it away?
When someone becomes too attached to one thing, they can't see anything else.
He wasn't born into a position where that was allowed.
Whether he liked it or not, he had to grow up quickly and act mature.
That was his mother's wish.
His mother's…
I've heard that growing up in a repressive environment can affect the heart.
Gradually, he began to show his childish side.
That too must be a part of Lord Jinshi's true nature.
And yet, those around him treat him as the beautiful eunuch.
It's strange, isn't it?
This painting…
Oh, what's this doing here?
I was told to throw it away.
What was it?
May I touch this?
Go ahead.
It's just a small stone.
I wonder where he picked it up from.
Did you take it away from him immediately?
Yes, a random stone isn't exactly clean, is it?
That was the right call.
It's poisonous.
What do you mean?
That's what I'd like to ask. Why was something like this lying around?
Did Lord Jinshi ever enter the inner court as a child?
Yes,
occasionally…
But why does that matter?
I can't say anything for now…
I have a theory. But no proof yet.
Lady Suiren, by tomorrow, the Empress Dowager's so-called curse
and the reason why the late emperor's body didn't decay will become clear.
Can you wait until then?
Even Lord Jinshi is involved now.
I didn't want to make this a big deal.
This smell… It's not just mold.
A brush with evenly flattened bristles… As I suspected.
Did the late emperor have a hobby of painting?
Just once, he painted something for me.
He said it was a secret just between us.
That if anyone found out, it would be taken away.
Is he getting flustered? That's Lord Jinshi's habit.
He is pretending to be calm.
I don't know much about the late emperor, nor do I wish to.
But to uncover the truth behind this curse, I need evidence.
Did the late emperor always paint in this room?
I'm not sure about that,
but from the time he began secluding himself here,
one individual had been accompanying him.
Can you call that person here?
I believe they still work here.
I'll call them.
May I touch it?
Go ahead.
It's stiffer than I expected.
And it has a distinct smell.
There are translucent fragments on the floor.
And stains that look like someone tried desperately to wipe them away.
And those stains…
They increase the closer you get to the wall.
It's soft. Layers of thick paper seem to be pasted here.
It's coated, perhaps to reinforce the surface.
I had a general idea about the curse,
but now, I might uncover something seemingly insignificant as well.
I've brought them here.
You are…?
He seem quite old for someone entrusted with the room of a person of high status…
I have something to ask you.
This person is a former slave.
And also, he cannot speak.
I see.
So that's how it is, huh?
It's not uncommon to choose a servant who cannot speak.
Especially for someone of high status who is constantly under watch.
Then, just nod or shake your head and that will be enough.
Were there any paintings in this room?
I believe there was something…
So, he won’t even bother listening to what a young girl has to say?
No, that's not it.
Is he hiding something?
Is there something on the wall?
May I remove this wallpaper?
It’s as if he's telling me not to.
I don't mind.
It's going to be destroyed anyway.
If it helps to uncover something, please do it.
Carefully…
This painting…
What is that?
It must have been painted by the late emperor.
I have no interest in the emperor's character.
Because he stood at the pinnacle of the nation,
he likely died without ever being able to fully utilize his true talent.
That talent resides in this painting.
The color of the robe this woman is wearing…
I believe it's made from pigment ground from orpiment stone.
Orpiment shares the same properties as arsenic.
And arsenic has a preservative effect, preventing decay.
At first, I thought that the orpiment used in the wallpaper or something similar
was unknowingly absorbed into his body over time.
That's what I thought.
But after seeing the shape of the brush in this room,
another possibility emerged.
He must have been using pigment made from orpiment.
The arsenic contained in the orpiment
was likely absorbed gradually into the late emperor's body.
By the time of his death, it must have spread throughout his entire body.
He continued painting in secret,
right here in this room.
For an emperor to engage in painting, such a thing would be considered unthinkable.
At least that's how people around him would see it.
That's why, even if he was called a fool,
the late emperor never made it public.
It was likely for that reason he entrusted the care of this room
to a mute slave servant.
There's still some resilience left.
Just how many layers lie beneath this?
With so many paintings,
the one who prepared the materials was likely…
the Empress, the late emperor's mother.
The woman in this painting must have known
that her own child was not fit to be emperor.
So, to protect her son who had stumbled upon the imperial throne by chance,
she gathered power under herself.
Even if it meant being called the Empress in her own right.
The empress, who did everything for her child,
ultimately granted him this room…
and the tools to paint with.
Unaware they were poisonous.
What an irony.
That is all I can say.
You've done more than enough.
It's as if she's questioning someone far beyond the azure sky.
How sentimental I've become.
How irritating.
Even though it's faded,
his presence remains overwhelming.
Am I within this painting too?
No, in the end, I am merely…
a fleeting existence passing by.
It is only thanks to the scars left here
that I now stand as the Mother of the Nation.
By chance, I fell into the late emperor's hands
and conceived a child.
There were voices that pitied such a girl.
Surely, such girls did exist.
But I had known of the emperor's perversions from the start.
My father was a civil official, and my mother, a concubine.
And though my face was youthful, I matured early.
And my father used me as a convenient tool.
I entered the rear palace as an attendant to a mid-ranking consort.
That consort was my half-sister.
She was raised with the utmost care and affection.
She had no way of knowing our father's true intentions.
Hey, Anshi! Hurry up and put on the ornaments for me!
Yes, Sister.
At last, tonight, His Majesty will come…
I caught a glimpse of him from afar the other day…
He was truly a beautiful man.
Is that so?
We have been expecting you.
Please, come in.
Get away!
Emperor!
That figure…
hardly seemed worthy of standing atop the nation.
As an attendant, I should have either comforted the consort
or apologized for any disrespect toward the Emperor.
Yet…
Are you alright?
The Emperor's eyes…
certainly caught sight of me.
The eyes of a girl brimming with ambition.
I bore the late Emperor's child
and faced death's shadow countless times.
I was fortunate that my child was a boy,
and the Empress acknowledged the child as her grandson.
"There, there…"
"Yes, yes."
There was once a woman who bore a daughter.
She claimed the girl was the late Emperor's child,
but the Emperor denied any knowledge of her.
The medical officer accused of being the father,
was exiled along with the child.
At that time, only medical officers were spared from castration in the rear palace.
But from then on, even they were forced to undergo it.
The one who performed surgery on my abdomen…
How pitiful that such cruel misfortune befell him.
The woman who gave birth to a daughter remained alone in the rear palace.
She would never leave the palace for the rest of her life.
Time passed even further…
When I no longer appeared as a young girl,
the late Emperor never came to see me.
It seems the court ranks will expand again.
Yes. I heard that Lord Shishou proposed it.
I see.
The rear palace kept growing larger,
and young girls burdened with the same fate as mine
kept arriving, one after another.
Existing solely as a puppet of the Empress,
he was a pathetic man who could only
converse properly with young girls.
To be forgotten by someone like that…
I couldn't forgive him!
Are you afraid of me?
Is it because I've become a grown woman?
Or is it…
this scar on my stomach?
I tormented the man who trembled, begging for forgiveness in the bedchamber.
The young girls who had been touched by him.
And his great mother, the Empress.
I wanted to imprint memories of myself onto him more than them.
After that, the late emperor
broke his spirit, and withdrew into that room.
No one felt the urge to question the reason.
In the end,
that man probably only pictured the Empress, his mother,
and those ambitionless daughters in these pictures.
Just once,
he painted me.
Even though
I once cherished that painting dearly,
I told Suiren to throw it away.
"I don't need it," I said.
Just as I wasn't needed by him.
Long ago, the late emperor once came to see us, didn't he?
Yes, I wonder how many years ago that was.
At that time, I picked up something like this.
They say this is orpiment.
This stone…
This morning, Suiren finally returned it to me.
I see…
Even if they call it an illegitimate child,
or say it was a child switched at birth,
there's no doubt it's still a precious child.
Once, I think I saw one of his paintings.
It was softly-colored, depicting a young girl.
I must have picked up this stone because I remembered that painting.
Even though I said to throw it away.
In the past, you used to like wearing this color, didn't you?
It's just a coincidence.
Is the woman in that painting really the Empress?
What was he trying to convey back then?
I don't know.
I chose not to find out.
More importantly, you…
It seems you've taken quite an interest in an intriguing attendant.
She's quite useful.
Indeed. But…
I know that's not all there is to it.
I've been watching you for years.
If you don't keep your favorites hidden,
someone will hide them from you.
NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW
The next episode is "Ghost Stories."
Subtitle translation by: Abhishek Chand Ramola ntriguing attendant.