The Empress Is a Yandere

Moonlight leaking through the palace walls shattered into silver flakes across the golden bricks of the Jiaofang Hall. Bai Ziqiu's fingertips trembled slightly as she gripped her golden silk fan. Three days ago, at the Empress's birthday banquet, Mu Wanqing had accepted her gift. The burning desire in her phoenix eyes had nearly scorched Bai Ziqiu. That was no gaze befitting the mother of the realm. It was unmistakably the same undisguised longing Bai Ziqiu herself felt.

Half a month ago, Mu Wanqing had clutched a glass cup shattered in two and sneered at her trusted attendant. "Go find out what Qiu'er likes." When she learned that Bai Ziqiu favored the Persian spices newly brought in from the Western Market, boxes of dragon's breath incense cakes quietly filled the secret compartment in Fengyi Hall. When she heard that Bai Ziqiu loved misty, rain-soaked scenery, seven pavilions for listening to the rain appeared in the imperial garden overnight.

"Your Highness! Her Majesty the Empress is ill. She specifically asked to see you!" Before the maid had finished speaking, Bai Ziqiu had already snapped the coral beads around her wrist. She rushed into Fengyi Hall, trampling the crimson beads scattered across the floor, only to find Mu Wanqing reclining against a red sandalwood couch. Her pale face looked hazy and beautiful beneath the gauzy sharkskin curtains.

"Her Majesty the Empress is ill? Why summon me? I'm no doctor." Bai Ziqiu tried to sound calm, but concern shone in her eyes.

Mu Wanqing sent the palace attendants away. A sly, triumphant smile hid beneath her sickly expression. "I hear it's lovesickness?" She suddenly seized Bai Ziqiu's wrist and pulled her into her arms. "Only my little sister Qiu'er, this one and only cure, can save my life." An arm slipped out from beneath the brocade quilt and curled around Bai Ziqiu's waist. The scent of borneol in Mu Wanqing's hair mingled with the bitter smell of medicine, wafting into her nose. "Do you know that I've had people gather rare treasures these past few days, all to make you smile?"

Bai Ziqiu saw the Persian spices peeking from the secret compartment by the bed, and the countless vermilion characters on the wall, each one spelling her name. At last, she broke into a soft laugh. She leaned forward and kissed those pale lips of her own accord, tasting a trace of blood. "So Her Majesty the Empress's lovesickness and my own terminal illness are, it seems, the very same affliction."

Theme: Love what I love