Tale of a False Phoenix

Author's note; And now for something completely unexpected...

Some claim that the birth of a true dragon or a true Phoenix is heralded by signs within the Heavens, such as stars streaking across the sky, flocks of cranes circling the child's birthplace, the skies giving blessed rain to a land upon the brink of drought.

On the day the Crown Prince was born, it was said that all of the flowers in the Empress' courtyard bloomed at once.  Such a pretty tale, but who but Eunuchs and maidservants were able to see it?  Still, the Emperor believed it and went so far as to title the babe upon his one hundred day celebration.  Many officials and nobles attended the celebration, with more and more extravagant gifts to give face to the Emperor and Empress and show their support to the little prince.

Whilst in his cups, my father went to visit my mother in her courtyard and it was on this day that I was conceived.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, my mother took this as a favourable sign.

"Your highness," I kowtowed to my master, offering complete submission and throwing away dignity at his feet. 

The man's thin lips curved at their corners, his icy appearance did not warm from this slight smile, instead, the air felt some ten times colder.  Despite this, he was a handsome man, with sharp Phoenix feather eyes, a square jawline and white scholarly skin with a hint of wheat.  His dark eyes were like frozen black diamonds and seemed to bore into one's soul, but I could tell that my grovelling pleased him.  Only when others bowed before him, gifting them their bodies to be stepped upon, to be broken or pampered at his whims was he content.  Fortunately, this was not a lesson that I learned the hard way.

"Rise, the Prince finally has a use for you," his smirk deepened, his eyes trailing over my body.  I had to suppress the shudder that rippled inside of me.  My master had never taken pleasure in viewing my body, had never even taken pleasure in my body.  He despised the very sight of me, leading to my suffering at the hands of his other concubines and servants in my past life.  Only, in that life, I managed to pull of a scheme leading to my bearing his only son and heir.  He'd had no choice but to recognise me over his beloved wife!

But rebirth was like taking a small butterfly and displacing it from where it was meant to be to ten thousand miles away.  The ripples in time had slowly circled outward until the future became unrecognisable.  Still, I was not completely dismayed by this fact.  After all, although I had reached the ultimate desire of any ambitious woman, I had barely warmed that gracious seat before it was ripped away from me.

"Gifting you would make him wary of you, thus this Prince must have you introduce yourself to him in an entirely different way," my 'husband' and master continued as if I was a commodity to do with as he pleased and sadly this was completely true.  No matter how I hated this fact, I could only bow my head and obey him.

A woman or male gher was expected to obey her father, her husband and her son in this life and should not have intelligence or will of her own.  Teaching a girl or gher child the etiquettes and arts was just another manner of displaying them, ultimately they would set aside these talents, if they were fortunate enough, to run their homes and raise their children.  And if they were not, then they were really no better than one of those women selling their talents within the brothel, just that they sold them to just one man and the pay was his humble blessings that may or may not take fruit.

The man's wife could at least have some say in running the inner courtyard, the Emperor disdained those officials who pampered the Concubine to suppress the wife.  But a Concubine only could live a good life if her background was strong, if her paternal family was strong.  For then, even if the wife would insist on obeisance, she would not abuse her authority too much and invite the wrath of her husband and the concubine's family.  But if the background was weak or there was no family...

In my last life, my family's fate was not good.  My father was a mediocre official, my older di brother believed his good-for-nothing friends and invested in a project that would not only fail, but caught the eagle eye of an opponent of my father.  He impeached my father, hinting that my failure of a brother was investing in illegal activities and brought forth proof.  That silver tongued bastard that convinced those young Masters was indeed a fraud, but there was no actual business, let alone illegal ones.  But the Emperor believed it and my family was ruined.  My status in the second Prince's house fell just two weeks after I married in.

I was thrown to a tiny, broken down building in the inner courtyard, my previous place given to a favoured shu daughter to add to the salt already scarring my wounds.  At my lowest, I came to realise that I could only rely on myself in this lifetime.  I held onto the belief of my Concubine mother that I was destined for greater things and learned how to scheme and how to survive.

In this life, I saved my Di brother from making a mistake, but in doing so, I allowed my older Di sister to path the way to a new disaster for the family.  It seemed that theirs was a fate of falling, dragging me down with them.  How foolish that I never realised my family was never to be a pillar in my life but an anvil perched upon a precipice ready to drag me down into the mire!  I was only fortunate that the First Wife of my husband was no longer a jealous woman made bitter by her beloved's acceptance of several concubines after their marriage, but a small, quiet gher that originally had less background than my own.

This was one of the ripples caused by my rebirth.

Originally, the Princess Consort of the Second Prince was his childhood sweetheart, a relationship he'd nurtured for a long time, but not because it was her, that delusion was her own, but rather as she was her father's daughter. Her father was the famous General Tao and the Second Prince had high ambitions, despite the auspicious signs accompanying his older brother, the Crown Prince's birth. My marriage to the Second Prince had also been part of his considerations for creating a network of support once he had the ability of removing the Crown Prince and making himself favourable on merit and connections. A pity that connection severed and died.

But although the Crown Prince was fated to die, for his was a life of overconsumption and excess leading to a demise that could not be blamed by subtle guidance in both of my lives, it seemed that the Emperor had no intention of allowing the Second Prince to easily take his thrown. At the ripe age of thirty three, the Empress actually managed to conceive dragon and Phoenix twins in my past life, giving her new hope for a second Crown Prince to share her blood. When the little one was designated so, my husband went mad and staged a coup, leading his secret armies and those held by his trusted confidents to siege the palace and take the throne by force.

In order to give his only son legitimacy, the usurper Emperor had to then deal with his father-in-law and wife, forcing the man into a corner to die and feeding his wife poison. Then I became Empress and my son Crown Prince! I had achieved what I was born to do!

"I will leave at once, my Prince," I murmured obediently, secretly smiling in my heart. With only a maid to accompany me, I was taken to be abandoned in the area close to the royal hunting grounds to await my future husband, my former brother-in-law, the seventh prince.

I wanted to laugh, to mock the Second Prince, this frigid husband who had only ever thought of what benefits his wives could bring him, how he could use them, how he could discard them! Useless trash! Peh! Now what was he left with? An inner courtyard barren of sons and a gher wife he refused to touch. And he still thought he could overthrow destiny, marry that childhood sweetheart his loins still longed for?

Could my family overthrow destiny? Could the Crown Prince survive his fate? Would a man who was a serpent sit legitimately on the throne of a dragon?

He who had once barely tainted that throne with his unpleasant aura was removed and charged with the crime of uprising, of regicide and of usurping the rightful Crown Prince. In his rush to obtain what he wanted, he failed to realise that the body of the toddler left in the ashes of the Empress palace fire was not his little brother, but a substitute. The real child had been smuggled out by another, while his mother and sister burned in sacrifice. That maid had been a person of the seventh prince.

And as his saviour, who else was better as a regent to rule until the Crown Prince was of age... that was, if he lived that long...

Unfortunately, I did not live that long so was unable to bear witness. My son and I were forced to drink poison as part of the punishment to Second Prince's household; there could be no survivors.

So now I would seduce the Seventh Prince, become his woman, bear his children and continue to my rightful ascension. Only in this life, it would be trickier.

Actually, the plan to get in his good graces was not difficult. I had a talent in making perfumes, incense and wines; it was how I captured the Second Prince in my past life long enough to obtain his seed after all, and now that talent was so much improved. In addition, I had already set in motion these events long ago. You see, Seventh Prince is not just the adversary that Second Prince could not tear down, he was also the man I loved.

It seemed like an eternity had passed since I first saw that elegant, suave man, his princely aura so much more regal than his numerous brothers. His age was only a couple of years Second Prince's junior; the Emperor was particularly amorous following the birth of his Empress' son. But his lesser years made no difference to his bearing. As if he were the light and they were mere parodies of his shadow. My small heart was aflutter just to see him from afar.

My feelings might not have evolved into anything was it not for him then saving my reputation at a flower viewing party thrown by the Empress. My Di mother had secured an engagement as a consort to Second Prince. While it was not the position of first wife, I would hold more respect than an ordinary Concubine. My biaojie was jealous and attempted to frame me. Were it not for Seventh Prince, I would have been disgraced, forced to commit suicide to save my reputation that had almost been soiled by a random man. Even then, Second Prince did not believe that I was not at fault at all, perhaps even thought I was throwing myself at the brother he hated the most. So although my marriage was not rescinded, I was forced to suffer the humiliation of becoming a low Concubine.

It was the beginning of my husband's dislike for me, one that seemed to leak without reason into my second life. I wondered on occasion if he saw through my buried infatuation with Seventh Prince.

Reborn, I believed I was free to pursue Seventh Prince, to freely love him and to be freely loved in return. I ensured our paths crossed more than once, I believed he would remember me, perhaps gain an affection for me... but for my fate...

Still, once I 'saved' the Seventh Prince and had him take in the aroma on my body, he would not be able to forget me. I would be an addiction to his senses, someone he would long for and could not abide to be without. However, despite that, I would still need to move fast; he would eventually become immune to the smell. I didn't doubt, though that he would love me as much as I loved him by the time that occurred.

Just as Second Prince, Seventh Prince had a gher Wife. All of the Princes had gher wives, the cause of this was indirectly because of me and my rebirth.

As mentioned, my Di brother was an idiot and a waste, but he was the heir and my Di mother spoiled both him excessively. He had been a much longed for son born some six years after his legitimate sister. He was two years my senior.

One of the hedonistic friends was a scheming bastard and worked together with the fraudster to drain my brother and the others of wealth. That youth who pretended to be noble was the secret son of a famous courtesan. She had managed to establish a household for him, using the old fallen daughter of a noble as his grandmother, giving him a background. But the taint of his blood could not so easily be forgotten, he hated that mother, hated the circumstances of his birth and hated legitimate young masters, insanely believing that they were all laughing at him. At eighteen years old, he already had his hands in numerous shady businesses, mostly gambling, but also his caravans would trade in contraband across the borders into other countries and later our country's secrets.

I discovered this accidentally when the Second Prince cum Emperor was trying to secure his rule. That man, turned twenty six in that life, was eager to establish himself as a loyal supporter of the new Emperor, to legitimise his gambling businesses and whorehouses, only to stupidly reveal himself in front of a visiting Princess and her entourage and be denounced a spy! He was tortured until he confessed all his dark history and his wealth confiscated. Not that any of that did my... former husband any good in the end.

It's not hard to drop hints and send anonymous letters, let others discover the truth and think it was all their idea. My brother lead the hedonistic Crown Prince to a brothel, where he managed to 'overhear' a conversation regarding his 'friend' and that man's wealth and shady businesses. That was prior to the Crown Prince's demise by a month, I believe, so my stupid brother forgot all about it, until that friend tried to convince him to invest in him and the fraudster's venture. The one thing my brother never wished to do was to drag down our official father so miraculously he had a minor epiphany and delayed agreeing to anything, instead went to speak to my father.

My father visited a magistrate friend, asking him to investigate that man and of course with that man still young and lacking in experience fell foul of the law and was imprisoned before eventually begin exiled. If one thinks about it, not a bad fate compared to being dead. I actually did him a favour.

My father and brother were praised in court for being 'smart' and 'vigilant'. The villain had already two underground gambling establishments and a caravan trading illegal goods. Digging out a weed before it's roots were any deeper was a good thing for both country and court. The Emperor was pleased. He began to favour my di-sister, who just happened to be a Concubine in his hidden palace. She was elevated in status, thus elevating us. Though I still failed to escape my own marriage.

However, stupidity seemed to be a fatal flaw in the My Di-siblings. Older sister became conceited and her ego swelled thanks to the flattering of her lesser Concubine sisters. Like an arrow already drawn in a bow they were guiding, they aimed her to fly towards the Empress, only to discard her once she hit. The dragon and Phoenix twins were lost before the Empress ever knew of their existence. My stupid sister was easily discovered as the perpetrator and as such, she and my family had to give up their lives as payment for the crimes against the Empress.

Bitter and sterile, the woman then schemed against the entire royal family and bought out a soothsayer to convince the Emperor that the Crown Prince should be selected by the Heavens. And that the Gods would reveal their choice when the gher Crown Princess gave birth to the son and heir. To this end, all of the Princes were wed to gher brides.

The trembling gher in Second Prince's palace, I had never met in my previous lifetime; that boy's status had been lower than mine before my family fell, our paths had originally not been destined to pass. However, Seventh Prince's Princess consort I had met; he had married Seventh Prince in that life time as a Second Wife, his first princess had died in childbirth leaving behind a son. Their marriage had been arranged by the Empress Dowager who had been impressed with the gher and his family; they had not just married him off as a connection for their sons and wanted the best for him, even if that meant delaying his marriage. They hadn't wanted to marry him to Seventh Prince either, but the Empress Dowager was insistent and the Seventh Prince filial, so they bowed to the Heavens, to the Emperor and Empress, his parents and to each other. He benevolently raised his stepson and bore his own son a year later.

For this reason, I feared the fertility of that gher Wife. If he was to bear the oldest son, I would not so easily expand my roots in this palace. He was already pregnant when I walked through the doors under the besotted eyes of my new husband. I took drugs to ensure the illusion that I was just as fertile as that bastard and conceived on my wedding night. My new husband was very pleased, gifting me with many treasures, drawing the jealous attention of his concubines. Some disdained me, some tried to flatter me. I particularly took note of one small Concubine with an abrasive nature, who'd also been favoured often before I entered as a Second Wife and gifted her with a pretty nail polish. It wasn't high quality and would easily flake off during every day activities, such as washing her hands, preparing food...

The gher wife lost his child a week after my pregnancy was confirmed. I could only laugh joyously in the walls of my courtyard, stroking my stomach cheerfully. "Remember why we are here," my 'maid' grasped by wrist, digging her nails into the flesh as she 'reminded' me. I sneered inwardly and pulled my arm away, despite the bloody scratches she left behind.

"I have not forgotten," I replied, narrowing my eyes. "Just, isn't this what Second Prince wanted? No heir for Seventh Prince?" Her lips thinned as she restrained herself. I trailed my eyes over her luscious body in disgust and had to readjust my opinion about her. Second Prince would never leave anything to chance. If I were to fail or to betray him, of course he required a back up plan. I suspected this maid's true purpose following me here. Especially when the blood and flesh of my own child spilled out between my legs.

"A lesson from the Second Prince," she murmured as she helped clean my weakened self. I gritted my teeth. This maid could no longer remain here!  I accused her of making a mistake, demoted her to a third ranked servant and transferred her to the laundry department.  See if she could go against me now!

I underestimated her skill, she eventually managed escape the laundry department to sneak into my husband's bed.  Fortunately, my spell was still woven upon him, he pushed her away in disgust!  I laughed in her face after I summoned her and forced her to drink a concoction of my devising before having a few trusted old women 'guide' her wangfei's room.  Thus she became my knife against the second potential heir and lost her own life in the process!

Everything was going my way!  I now had control of the household, allowing wangfei to be only an ornament.  I ensured that none of my husband's other concubines would ever bear any more of his children once his immunity to my scent became apparent!  Once I had borne Wang ye's first son, I thought I might even allow that gher to bear a Prince so the throne became my husband's.  Second Prince would ensure that no other princess consort bore a son in the meantime, so I had the time to enact my plan.

However, it was not easy watching the man you love disappear twice a month, four times a month, almost every night, into another person's courtyard, even if that person was his wife. I had borne him a daughter and his only son, why was he no longer looking at me?? I was supposed to be his wife, his Empress, he was mine, not that little bitch's!! So why were his eyes as cold as Second Prince's when he looked at me? Why did they soften when others politely complimented his Wangfei? It was intolerable!

A mountain could not hold two tigers, this palace could not bear the divine right of two phoenixes. That false Phoenix and his unborn child had to die. I would gain the dragon throne for my husband by myself! I had the means, I just needed the opportunity!

But why did my heartbeat falter when witnessed my husband's legs give way when he heard the news that the bastard's last child was lost? Why did it hurt so when I saw the unshed tears form in his eyes when the physicians told him that Wangfei was upon his last breath? Why was I being forced to drink poison in punishment for that bastard's demise??!

"Why?" I screamed at him as he walked away without emotion, without any hesitation after declaring his will. "You know the soothsayer's words were underlined with silver and gold! You said that you would never give up the fight for the throne, regardless of Wangfei!"

He offered me a bitter laugh. "What is the point of ascending the throne if every time I turn towards my Empress, I don't see him?"

"But... didn't you hate him?  He's a disgusting gher!"

"I never hated him.  I only hated myself... for hurting him.  For exasperating that hurt. And even though I swore that I would protect him this time..." he did not finish the words in his mind.

"Then what about me?"  I had to know, was I not important too?

"You?" He seemed to stop, to think, to give me a fleeting glimpse of hope. "Older brother hatched his plot well. I really was infatuated by you, but for a long time, I have never understood why. You are very talented. But you are now nothing more than a blunt knife, an arrow at the end of its flight.  Don't worry, your children will follow you in a few short years. I won't allow your blood to taint my descendants. If there is a next life, do not cross my path. I cannot guarantee you a whole corpse if you do. Goodbye, Ms Feng."

His words were more deadly than the poison rushing through my veins in this life or the last.