"Fen Ai looks amazing, Your Grace!" Snoopy whispered in my ear.

I nodded, smiling like a proud mother watching her children. Fen Ai was shining, she was the main actress in the play. The play was entertaining. I rarely ever watched a play, except in high school like once or twice. Fen Ai was elegant in her attire, wearing a beautiful headpiece. Make-up was powdered on heavily.

The plot was fuzzy. I was interested but I couldn't concentrate with Chang Ying a few meters away from me. However, I picked it up effortlessly after the climax.

"You are not the love that I thought you were!" Fen Ai exclaimed. She pointed her finger at the other actor. He was average-looking. I sensed the concubines fanning over him. I had to stifle a smile.

"My love... I love you... My spirit and yours are meant to harmonize! The river flows, flowing effortlessly and never stopping, until the winter season arrives," the boyfriend cries, palming Fen Ai's cheek. "The river in my heart will not freeze. It is warm for you, my dear."

Ew. I cringed at the ridiculous metaphor.

Fen Ai shoved his head away, then started to shed light tears. She turned to face him again. "You... You are unfaithful! The river in your heart is not a river! It is a mirage!"

"My dear, please!" the boyfriend pleads, grabbing ahold of Fen Ai's arm, but she shrugged it off completely.

Again, Fen Ai walks away from the man, pausing to cross her arms in anger. She sang beautifully, harmonizing with the cast members playing the pipa. Two women behind her sing in unison.

The play continued with Fen Ai speaking poetically about the deception of her lover. It sounded boring when you explain it, but all in all, it was a very interesting play. The Emperor was also enjoying it. But, I think he related to it as well. The man in the play appeared gentle at first but after, he quickly ran behind a room divider.

When he arrived back, his clothes are all in black.

"You were kind to me, showed me everything there was in the world," Fen Ai whispered loudly. "How could you!"

I stifled a laugh when Fen Ai let out a loud howling scream before he "kills" her. The play ends off with more harmonious tones, and that was it. It was long enough to keep me entertained. That was all it mattered.

The play finished and the banquet was done. Many were raving about the performance of the actress, which was my maid. The Emperor pleasingly smiled at me. "I am glad I granted your maid a chance. She did well."

"I thank you on behalf of her, Your Majesty." I enjoyed my last sip of tea before rising from my seat.

"I will reward her accordingly." the Emperor nodded at my departure. I smiled gratefully, then followed the rest of the crowd to exit. Snoopy supported my hand when I walked through the bodies.

Niu Lin was making her way out. I paused as the lower-ranking consorts made their way for me to walk through. As I finally reached outside, the silence was deadly. I was staring at the back of Niu Lin's head, with her maids behind her without noticing me.

I speed-walked next to her, her maids bowed with their heads. Niu Lin bowed, raising her eyebrows at my presence. "Greetings to Your Grace."

I didn't know where to start. Niu Lin looked at me innocently, with no demise in her eyes anymore. We had a truce. I already granted her a residence to stay at from the deal we made before. Regardless of that, there was hate resonating beneath my skin. There was no way I could easily forgive her.

She was still an enemy. She was still someone I didn't trust too much. I still wanted to keep a close eye on her, and also to keep a steady relationship between us. I tried to do this with the Empress, but of course, she was as stubborn as me.

"You knew about Wan Er," I stated, walking beside her now. Niu Lin would be inclined to speak more if I walked beside her rather than being in her chamber sitting across from her. That was how the human psyche worked. She'd see me as a friend, rather than an opposition.

Niu Lin nodded. "Although I'm not fond of you, I didn't want you to be oblivious about it."

"Niu Lin," I said. She slightly faced me. I turned my face to look her in the eyes, my shoulders relaxed. "Did Chang Ying and Wan Er ever have conflict? Wan Er was favoured, would she not be concerned over it?"

"Madame Chang Ying never told you?" Niu Lin had a weird look on her face.

I shook my head as a response.

Niu Lin's forehead furrowed as she turned to look away from me. "Her Grace and Madame Wan Er used to be very close. They always seemed to be very distant but in private, they were always close."

"If they were in private, how would you know that?" my suspicions arose.

Su Yin didn't even know.

"Your Grace, promise me you won't inform Madame Chang Ying this? Since you and I are on good terms now, I don't want—"

"Just tell me." I interrupted impatiently.

Chang Ying and Wan Er being close? She never mentioned that to me. I eyed Niu Lin, studying her face and waiting to see if she was lying or not. Niu Lin didn't smile, nor laugh, her face was stiff. I didn't want to think there was a chance that Chang Ying was fabricating everything there was about herself to Su Yin and me.

Nothing will make sense to me anymore after this. I was playing detective when I'd rather be playing cards or checkers.

Niu Lin sighed heavily. She looked uncomfortable under my stare, so I looked away. "Your Grace, you know I can be meddlesome sometimes. I worked with another to conspire against Wan Er. She was awfully arrogant, please understand this."

"More arrogant than you?" I cocked an eyebrow.

I knew I shouldn't be initiating another argument, but that statement was hypocritical. Niu Lin always had low-self esteem but pretended she didn't. But I knew. If she thought Wan Er was arrogant, that means Wan Er had the biggest god complex.

However, I didn't blame her—the Emperor favoured her. He still replaced her quite quickly. Maybe she wasn't so great after all.

Niu Lin stifled a smile. "Yes, Your Grace. More arrogant than I am. I suggest you not taunt me as I'm telling you something so private."

Her snarkiness would've got her lashed, but I chose not to say anything. I let it go.

"Anyway, I eavesdropped on a conversation she had with someone in her estate. I realised very soon that it was Madame Chang Ying," Niu Lin explained. "To my surprise, they were being very friendly."

I sharply inhaled as I fumbled with the puzzle pieces in my mind. "Wan Er attempted to plot against the Empress, am I correct?"

"I believe so. Her Grace was very similar to Madame Chang Ying," Niu Lin concentrated on the ground we were walking on. "They were both very kind and didn't start any conflict, but Madame Wan Er was known to be very power-hungry. She seduced the Emperor occasionally and tried to frame the late empress twice."

Wan Er wasn't as innocent as she seemed. Or maybe Niu Lin was lying to me. Who knows? No one can be trusted. For all I know, Niu Lin could be giving me false information to mess with my head.

"Did the late empress ever plot against her?" I asked for confirmation.

Niu Lin nodded. Now, she turned to face me. She pursed her lips, slanting her eyebrows up in concern. "I wouldn't want to go against Madame Chang Ying because she uses many pawns to get her way up to her title."

The Emperor liked her the first time he saw her. Chang Ying's father sacrificed her, just so he could live. I was starting to doubt Niu Lin's story because it didn't correlate to what Chang Ying told me. This was messing with my head. Chang Ying had told me in a month, she was already an Imperial Noble Consort. She couldn't have lied, because it was true? The Emperor doted on her and it was evident he did because people talked about it. That was how she kept her title for a long time—she was doted on.

But I chose not to speak up. I had to know more.

"How?" I asked, maintaining my irritation.

"You don't know this, Your Grace? Has Madame Chang Ying never told you this?" Niu Lin ridiculed, then throwing her head back to laugh. She looked at me and gave me a patronizing look. "Her Grace made maids erase names from the list of concubines and replace their names with hers. His Majesty never noticed, and neither did anyone else, which is why he saw her often."

She continued, "His Majesty is busy, hence he assumes that he did call for Madame Chang Ying. Her Grace plays foul. She bribed maids to tell her where His Majesty was at all times, just so she can magically appear."

"Chang Ying is a temptress, Your Grace. Within a month, she got promoted." Niu Lin scoffed, shaking her head at my oblivion.

I was so sure she was lying. There was no way she wasn't lying to me. Chang Ying was always sweet to me the first time we met. My mind was racing with thoughts I couldn't attend to. I was already getting a slight headache at the puzzle I was attempting to fix. Niu Lin was smiling, ridiculing me at my oblivious state of mind.

Can I wrap my head around the fact that Chang Ying was deceiving me the entire time? I came to Niu Lin for answers—answers that I knew would disappoint me. I knew what Chang Ying was capable of, but I wasn't so sure to accept it all.

One way to find out.

"Chang Ying told me that—" I began, but Niu Lin exhaled with frustration.

"Forget what she told you, Your Grace. I know the truth and whether you trust me or not, I don't really care." Niu Lin shrugged, pressing her lips together.

My eyes wandered around the scenery. It was a beautiful summer evening. There was a tint of yellow and pink in the clouds. Clouds dominated the scene, with the white engulfing the sunset colours. Orange-ish tones were still pigmented in the sky.

After what happened with the voodoo doll, I now know what Chang Ying was capable of. But what if Niu Lin was lying to me? How do I know if she was telling the truth? I had to taunt her. I had to bait the truth out of Niu Lin. I can't be naive. I cleared my throat. "You're just jealous."

"I'd like to say that I am, but that's the truth," Niu Lin turned away from me now, glancing at the flowers to her right. "Madame Chang Ying always wanted to be Empress. I wouldn't be surprised if she and Madame Wan Er plotted against the late empress, just so she can use Madame Wan Er as a stepping stool."

Niu Lin said what I was thinking the entire time. There was a possibility of such that I wanted to confirm. Niu Lin was smart. She was capable of understanding how vile these women are.

I wasn't.

Chang Ying could've never done that, would she? She was always kind and virtuous, putting others first. She cried to me and told me that she didn't want to see evil in the harem. She cried and said the women in the harem were so cruel to her.

She had cried about the Empress and the treatment she'd given to other concubines. Chang Ying wanted me to become the next empress. She knew my potential. There was still something iffy about Niu Lin's statements that I was willing to doubt. No matter what Niu Lin said about her, Chang Ying was still saddened about the conditions here.

"Chang Ying wouldn't do that... The first time I met her, she told me I'd make a great empress." I baited.

Niu Lin furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Her Grace said that to Madame Wan Er when she was a Noble Consort."

"She encouraged her? You overheard that much?" I doubted Niu Lin. How the hell could she have stayed that long to hear the entire conversation? No way. Niu Lin did not have the time and day, nor the guts, to stay that long to overhear their conversation.

"This was a different time, sister. When Wan Er was still a Noble Consort, I was walking to her chamber to ask her for more coal. Madame Wan Er and I—we weren't on the friendliest terms but we still relied on each other in terms of materials," Niu Lin paused. We stopped walking by now and stood to face each other. "Anyways, I overheard Her Grace tell her she'd make a good empress."

My heart stopped. I was one second away from having my ears and nostrils blowing smoke. I felt stupid and betrayed like I was her girlfriend and she cheated on me or something. My lashes were starting to moisten. I wasn't sad, nor upset now. I was angry and about to murder someone with my bare hands.

Niu Lin must have noticed because she paused and gave me a pitiful look. Then, she continued, "Madame Chang Ying told her that she saw virtue and greatness in her. When Madame Wan Er asked her why Her Grace couldn't just plot against the Empress herself and usurp her throne, Her Grace refused and said she didn't like the attention."

"I'm powerful, but I don't have the potential to become the Empress! I don't like the attention, I just... I want you to! You have the potential, you have it all!"

"I can't do this alone, even though His Majesty favours me the most, I can't do this alone!"

"It'll hurt if you're going to be the main woman in his eyes, but I know he'll always have me in his heart. I can't stand that inhumane Empress still sitting on her throne and treating us like rubbish. She's murdered concubines, Ying Yue, she's murdered innocent women like us in the harem."

I remembered. Chang Ying was in my old chamber, begging me for forgiveness for putting a maid to execution. She framed the maid and saved me, then she pleaded for me to go against the Empress. I refuse to believe that I put up with that. I refuse to believe everything was just a ploy to get me vulnerable.

Was I just a puppet?

Tears started to well up in my eyes. Not due to sadness, but due to extreme fury. My throat burned and my jaw was clenched. I couldn't relax if anyone told me to. I couldn't relax at all. My jagged breaths were loud, catching the attention of Niu Lin. She studied my face. Niu Lin was suddenly worried about me for once.

I couldn't control it. I wanted to grab Chang Ying by the throat and strangle her.

"Your Grace? Your Grace, what's wrong? Why do you look so mad?" Niu Lin nudged me gently, trying to get me to face her but I couldn't.

"Because she did the same thing to me," I replied, already thinking about different ways I could handle this situation.