The Last Empress Read Online Free PDF

horizon.

Silent spring leaves only fluff behind.

Spider webs catch but

Spring itself would not stay.
    An image of Yung Lu entered my mind, and I wondered where he was and whether he was safe.

    "My lady," came An-te-hai's whisper,"the theater is crowded before the show is even created." Lighting a candle, my eunuch drew near. "Your Majesty's private life has been the talk of teahouses throughout Peking."
    I didn't want to let it bother me. "Go away, An-te-hai."
    "The rumors expose Yung Lu, my lady."
    My heart shuddered, but I couldn't say that I hadn't anticipated this.
    "My spies say it is your son who stirs up the rumors."
    "Nonsense."
    The eunuch backed himself toward the door. "Good night, my lady."
    "Wait." I sat up. "Are you telling me that my son is the source?"
    "It's just a rumor, my lady. Good night."
    "Does Prince Kung have a role in it?"
    "I don't know. I don't think Prince Kung is behind the rumor, yet he hasn't discouraged it either."
    A sudden weakness ran through me.
    "An-te-hai, stay awhile, would you?"
    "Yes, my lady. I'll stay until you are asleep."
    "My son hates me, An-te-hai."
    "It is not you he hates. It is me. More than once His Young Majesty swore that he would order my death."
    "It doesn't mean anything, An-te-hai. Tung Chih is a child."
    "I've told myself that too, my lady. But when I look at him, I know he is serious. I am afraid of him."
    "Me too, and I am his mother."
    "Tung Chih is no longer a boy, my lady. He has already done manly things."
    "Manly things? What do you mean?"
    "I can't say another word, my lady."
    "Please, An-te-hai, continue."
    "I haven't the facts yet."
    "Tell me whatever you know."
    The eunuch insisted that he be allowed to remain silent until he obtained more information. Without wasting a moment, he left.

    All night long I thought about my son. I wondered whether it was Prince Kung who was manipulating Tung Chih in order to get back at me. The word was that after Kung apologized for his behavior, he ended his friendship with Yung Lu. They had split over the case of General Sheng Pao.
    I knew Tung Chih was still bewildered and angry over my treatment of his uncle. Prince Kung was the closest thing to a father he had, and he resented that he had been the one to read the condemning edict before his uncle and the entire court. He might have only barely grasped the import of the words he read, but he could not have missed the look of humiliation in his uncle's eyes as they turned away from him. I knew my son blamed me for this and so much else.
    Tung Chih was spending more and more time with Kung's son, Tsai-chen. I rejoiced that together they could escape from the pressures of the court in each other's company, however briefly. In my mind I joined them on their rides through the palace gardens and in the royal parks beyond. My spirits lifted when they returned, their faces flushed with color. I sensed a greater independence in my son. But I had begun to wonder whether it was true independence or simply his avoidance of me, his mother, whom he associated with the tiresome attendance at audiences, the person who told him to do things he didn't wish to do.
    I didn't know how to quell his anger except to leave him alone and hope that it would pass. Increasingly we saw each other only at audiences, which just deepened my loneliness and made my nights longer.
More and more my thoughts returned to the old concubines and widows of the Palace Temple, to wonder if their fate was not more tolerable than my own.

    In order to protect me, Yung Lu had removed himself to a distant corner of the empire. I had been the subject of scorn and misunderstanding since the day I gave birth to Tung Chih, so I was used to it. I didn't expect the rumors and nightmares to stop until Tung Chih had gone through the ceremony of officially mounting the throne.
    My only true wish was to establish a life of my own, a possibility I feared was slipping away. For the sake of my son's future, I could not remove