A Jiao sits in a wicker chair outside Changle Palace, gently waving a palm fan as memories of the past surge through her mind. The world knows only of “a golden house to hide A Jiao” and that her mother, Princess Dou, helped Liu Che ascend the throne. But no one knows that without me, A Jiao, his throne would have been hard to secure. If I hadn’t played mediator between my imperial grandmother and him, how could he later have made Confucianism supreme and driven back the Xiongnu in such glory? They all say I was jealous, but who remembers that he swore an oath to marry me? Later generations say I bore no children, but nobody knows that when Liu Che was hunting in the forest and the Xiongnu ambushed him, I took an arrow for him and lost the only child I would ever have.
Wei Zifu clutches a strip of white silk and weeps. Because of the witchcraft case, Crown Prince Liu Ju killed himself with a sword, and Princess Wei was executed by being cut in half at the waist. “If I’d known this would be the outcome, why did I compete with A Jiao for the title of empress?” Looking at her palm, the Grand Empress Dowager recalls being told she was destined to be a phoenix. Was it because I had agreed to leave home and marry A Jiao, but then saw Liu Che among the wedding procession? To stay by his side, I deliberately fell, never imagining it would leave a scar on my right palm. I ruined my phoenix destiny, and this was the fate I ended up with.
Liu Ju died by suicide after rebelling over the false witchcraft charges. His daughter, Princess Wei, was cut in half at the waist. A Jiao, too, went to Zhongnan Mountain to raise orphans. Liu Che remembered the promise he had made to A Jiao when he brought a wild goose to ask for her hand: “A Jiao, listen. If one day I let you down, may I spend the rest of my life trapped in schemes, surrounded by suspicion on one side and betrayal on the other, with not a single person around me who truly cares. May my family leave me and those closest to me abandon me, until I end up utterly alone, guarding an empty palace, unable even to find someone to talk to at night.”
The Ajiao Chen described by the author is different from the Ajiao Chen described by others. Not only does she know martial arts, but she also understands imperial power and can read palms. She overturned the case of her own witchcraft grievance without relying on rebirth or time travel.
Well written, keep up the good work! I saw Gillian Chen in another mode.