Chapter 77 Lengmeis Pregnancy (2/2)

None of them. Or all of them perhaps.

The ordinary people envied the life behind the red palace walls. In their imagination, it was all about wealth, pleasure and extravagance. Even the animals — imported Western cats or Ferghana horses from the borderlands — were taken good care of by special staff and lived better than the ordinary people who earned a modest living with a few acres of farmland.

Lengmei never experienced hunger or coldness. She was the lady of the Leng family. Ladies from the noble families were usually bossy and cocky for they had their family power behind them. But she couldn't. She had to smile without baring teeth and walk while keeping the hemline on the ground. She had to learn musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, and painting. She had to study poems and proses. Only through such culture could she win the heart of the emperor, and her family's investment in her would be paid back.

She recalled something that happened shortly after she entered the harem. She met her mother and nanny at an imperial feast. She was so happy and was about to greet them when they bowed to her and said, ”Blessings to you, Your Grace.”

She suddenly realized she was no longer a lady of the Leng family but one of the three thousand concubines of the emperor, which her family long expected her to become. She gave a gentle smile and said, ”Stand up.”

There were many girls like her in her family. ”I'm the best among them.” Lengmei often thought proudly in her chamber after she qualified for entering the harem.

But the harem was far different from what she expected. It was full of schemes and betrayals. After she won attention by framing a teenage girl for the first time, she knew she mastered the rules of the harem and she would not stop there. She had forgotten the look of that girl long ago. She only remembered she was always wearing a cute smile.

She was buried in her memories with blurred eyes when a maid in green called her back to reality, ”Your Grace, Zui Linglong is here to see you.”

”Invite her to join me in the backyard and make tea with Green Conch Spring leaves my family sent here last time.” Lengmei smiled at a small bronze mirror. It was the smile that aristocrats liked, a smile that was both tender and cute. ”I can still do it. I used to practice for so long after all.” she thought.

Zui Linglong was wearing white clothes and no makeup, just as usual. It was quite at odds with Lengmei's gorgeous apparel. Lengmei sometimes felt she was looking at a wandering ghost walking off the ground.

A gust of wind blew in, rattling her clothes, making her look even thinner, like a lonely and soulless skeleton standing there.

Lengmei winked and rolled up sleeves to make tea for her visitor. She added some fresh tea leaves into the boiled water with her exquisite fingers. The water gradually turned green and the green grew darker, emitting a vapor in the air that moistened the chamber. ”It's like a dream when I talk with you. It won't surprise me if you vanish all of a sudden.”

Zui Linglong remained silent. She didn't drink the tea but just sat still, gazing at Lengmei. Lengmei wasn't the least perturbed, and she kept talking on her own about the exotic gifts she received and interesting stories she heard about recently.

After she finished a story about two rich men smashing coral tree to show they had more wealth than each other, Zui Linglong finally said, ”The altar?”

Lengmei knew she was asking why she didn't use the altar. She replied casually that it was not damaging enough and might fail to exterminate her enemy.

Zui Linglong pointed out bluntly that Lengmei's pregnancy was not real.

Lengmei nodded for she didn't intend to hide the truth from Zui Linglong in the first place. It was a voodoo she obtained from a barbarian tribe, and she didn't expect it to be used on herself then.

It could be used to fake pregnancy on someone else. She could send the victim into the limelight and then push her into hell by exposing the fraud. What could be a better torment than that?

Zui Linglong asked, ”How are you going to handle it?”

Lengmei looked aside. The backyard was arranged as she dictated. There were some bare and peculiar rocks, and no flowers were planted intentionally. Sometimes a couple of wild flowers would appear in the corners, lonely and timid.

”I had Doctor Hu prescribe some tocolytic drugs for me.” They were both smart enough to understand the implication. The harem was never devoid of accidents. Suddenly, something occurred to Lengmei and she asked the question she had always been curious about.

”Why did you help me?”

”I never helped you. You are helping yourself.”

With a sizzle, the tea water boiled again. A wild goose flapped wings and flew over the clear sky above their heads. Was it flying across the palace or out of it?

Lengmei didn't know, and she didn't need to know. All she needed to do was to bear the weight of the wronged souls and live in the dream woven by extravagance and tears.

It was her destiny and the duty her family gave her.