Two figures dressed in all white floated to the palace. Mei followed Ling'er, who was in a hurry to reach the palace. Once they reached, she led her through the palace with great ease as if it were her backyard. It was clear she was very familiar with the palace.
They reached the noble consort palace, and they floated inside. The scene before her was more than erotic; they could see two people in bed, and if she only had blood in her body, a big blush would have coloured her cheeks by now; she felt a nonexistent nose bleeding, and she wiped her nose.
Compared to her former husband's feeble tries yesterday, this was different, but Mei felt bad for invading other people's privacy, and also, it was weird to see her sister in that condition, so she left.
She wondered why she didn't feel bad when watching her husband and his concubine, maybe because she knew those two were bad people.
She left the room immediately, but with just a glance, it was clear why the emperor was first on Ling'er's list, and her husband was the second last.
Leaving Ling'er still watching the show, she floated. A loud shattering noise startled her, and she went towards where the sound was coming from to investigate.
She entered and saw a woman dressed grandly and sweeping a table full of food as she cussed loudly and in the situation, she could guess that was the mother of the nation and the current empress.
Mei recognised the feeling the empress was feeling as she had similar moments before she died when her husband's concubine used underhanded tricks all the time to suppress her.
She felt sorry for the empress, as she also experienced the same issue when she was alive.
The empress's maids were kneeling as she shouted at them in anger, demanding to know how they could let the noble consort servant steal the emperor under their noses.
Mei was surprised at how similar they were, and she blamed the other woman instead of the man who wanted to be "stolen".
She wished she could advise the empress because she never considered her husband to be a problem and always blamed the concubine, and that got her dead.
She stayed at the empress's palace just listening to her cursing her sister, which improved her mood.
Linger joined her, wanting to know why she left. While explaining in great detail how fit and good in bed, the emperor Mei shook her head, worried about the girl's naughtiness.
Linger recounted how the noble consort acted like she was feeling uncomfortable and unwell to get the emperor to visit her chambers. She did this because she knew the emperor was scheduled to visit the empress that night.
That type of trick disgusted Mei, and her sister's underhanded methods did not surprise her. She was just like the mother who raised her.
Thinking about her stepmother made Mei recall the life she had before she died at the hands of her husband and his concubine.
Mei closed her eyes as her memory transported her back to her childhood. The sounds of Ling'er's laughter and the discussion of the empress and her maid around her faded as the images of her past filled her memory.
She didn't remember when she lost her mother as she was young back then but she was told that immediately after her father finished the mourning period he appointed her stepmother as the principal wife but her grandmother Madam Sun took Mei under her wing raising her with the warmth and love so she had never had felt the absence of a mother.
Even though her grandmother loved her, unfortunately, her father was quite distant throughout her life proving the term "When a man marries another wife, he becomes a stepfather to his children"
Everything came tumbling down one day at the ripe age of fourteen when she lost her beloved grandmother. That was when she truly felt alone in the world.
The loss had hit very hard, leaving her devastated and a wound that never fully healed
Before she passed away, her Grandmother made her father promise her Mei would have a say in her marriage, fearing she might get the end of the stick that is how Mei came to choose her husband despite it being out of the norm for a girl to have a say in her marriage.
Just two years after the passing of her grandmother, Mei's father summoned her to his study with news that she sent her heart into disarray, a marriage proposal from the Duke of Chiang household for their heir also an opportunity to enter the palace to become a consort he gave Mei the decision to choose one.
Mei could feel the distance in his voice. Her stepmother stood beside him, her dissatisfaction barely concealed. Mei knew she had to come to a decision, but as a sixteen-year-old girl with no outside experience, she saw the position of the duchess as a better opportunity than becoming a consort, so she made a choice immediately which she now regretted if only she had known she would have at least waited and asked help from her cousin to investigate him.
When she made the decision, she failed to notice the relief washing over her stepmother's face.
Gathering her courage, she bowed to her father, informing him she chose the duke's household; just as she uttered that, she couldn't see the relief washing over her stepmother's face.
The choice she made that fateful day had forged her life and her sisters differently at that moment; she couldn't help but wonder why her path would lead her to where it did. Dead burned to bones.
But the same decision led her sister to the palace as a favoured consort of the Emperor, and she thought if only her mother was alive to guide her, she would have chosen differently, and her fate wouldn't have led her to death.
She saw her fiancee for the first time a year later at a festival hosted by her father, and although they barely spoke, he looked decent, and they politely passed some words in exchange, and that settled her uneasy heart, and she felt that she had made the correct decision.