I transmigrated into Empresses in the Palace as Fuci, the expendable character who gets fed to the well from the start.
Looking at the face in the bronze mirror, a face destined for an early death, I burst out laughing. Go back? Of course I will, but before that, everyone who wants me to “exit the stage” can pave my road to the underworld first!
Consort Hua wants to use my blood to make an example of me? I pretend to be possessed and shriek on the spot, “Your Highness, there’s a little prince clinging to your shoulder!” She is so startled that she drops her jade ruyi and stumbles back three steps.
The empress wants to turn me into a hidden pawn? I play mad and knock over the eternal lamp. As the flames leap onto the Buddhist scriptures, I cry, “Hands are reaching up from underground to grab my ankles!”
Now the whole harem knows that Yikun Palace has a mad dog.
By day, I cradle a dead branch and pour my heart out to the well. Late at night, I burn spirit money at the palace wall and murmur, “The sisters are all waiting... Who’s next?”
Consort Hua finds me ominous but can’t bear to lose this weapon. The empress thinks I’m uncanny but still wants to keep me on a leash.
I accept Zhen Huan’s scrutiny and Cao Qinmo’s probing without complaint.
Amid this haze of madness, I quietly gather the secrets they let slip and carefully weave a net to kill the king. Every so often, I also “have an episode” and utter a few bloody prophecies.
Until one night, Consort Hua kicks me into the Palace Discipline Office. Her gold nail guard presses against my throat as she smiles. “You’re nothing but an ant. Your death means nothing.”
I spit out the blood in my mouth and look up at her with the clearest smile I’ve ever worn.
“Your Highness, do you know whose phoenix fate the water ghosts at the bottom of the pond were devouring last night?”
If we’re going mad, let’s all go mad together. Let’s see who gnaws through whose bones first.
