Chapter 1

June of the twentieth year of the Kangxi reign, summer.

Just as dawn was breaking, the servants of Chengqian Palace placed ice buckets in the four corners of the main hall. Four nimble young maids, each holding a gray-feathered fan with a wooden handle, fanned the air at a leisurely pace two steps away from the ice.

Beneath the copper plates at the center of the fans, eight peacock tail feathers were pressed, wrapped and secured with blue and red silk threads. With every sway of the fans, a touch of brilliance danced across the hall.

The cool air radiating from the ice drifted and wound its way into the tightly closed bed curtains. Before long, the maid waiting outside heard the sound of someone turning over on the bed.

The Noble Consort must have awakened.

When she woke up in the morning, the Noble Consort disliked being surrounded by too many maids, allowing only her close confidantes to attend to her. Puyu signaled the maids beside her to prepare the items the Noble Consort would need shortly, then stepped softly into the inner chamber.

Stepping around the screen, she saw that the Noble Consort was already dressed, sitting there with a dazed expression as she waited for her hair to be done. She was quiet and taciturn, looking just as listless as she had over the past few days, as if she had lost her soul.

The Noble Consort had been ill for about ten days, looking extremely haggard. The imperial physicians could diagnose no specific ailment, only claiming that the sultry weather had caused her loss of appetite.

Everyone in the harem was well aware of the true cause of her illness, yet no one dared speak of it. The Noble Consort was suffering from an illness of the heart.

Empress Xiaozhao had passed away in the seventeenth year of Kangxi's reign. It was now the twentieth year, and the position of Empress, for which the Noble Consort had waited three years, remained empty. Judging by the attitudes of the two Dowager Empresses and the Emperor, her hope of being crowned Empress was now utterly dashed.

Puyu sighed deeply in her heart, picked up a comb, and began to carefully comb the Noble Consort's hair.

Tong Jiahe only came to her senses when she felt someone gently touching her hair. In her dream last night, a woman whose face she could not see had been weeping continuously, her sobbing voice filled with endless, unspeakable misery.

Tong Jiahe had tried hard to see her face. Was it the original owner of this body, or someone else connected to her?

Waking from the bizarre dream, she had to face the reality of her transmigration. After dying from overwork to get an internship certificate, she had transmigrated to the Qing Dynasty, becoming Emperor Kangxi's Noble Consort of the Tunggiya clan.

The original Noble Consort Tong came from the Bahutekeshen branch of the Tunggiya clan. She was the biological niece of Empress Xiaokangzhang and, more importantly, Emperor Kangxi's genuine maternal cousin.

Noble Consort Tong had entered the palace in the fifteenth year of Kangxi's reign. Due to her prominent family background and noble birth, she enjoyed the treatment of a consort from the moment she entered, and her initial title was immediately that of Noble Consort. Over the years, the Emperor's favor had never waned, and their bond was unique.

With the dual status of both maternal cousin and Noble Consort, her life in the imperial harem was like a fish in water. Aside from needing to keep a low profile before the Grand Empress Dowager, she had nothing else to fear.

During her school days, Tong Jiahe had read many time-travel novels and knew a thing or two about the Kangxi era.

The capture of Oboi, the suppression of the Three Feudatories, the pacification of Taiwan, the expulsion of Tsarist Russia, the three campaigns against Galdan... and the struggle among the nine princes for the throne, which was most talked about by later generations.

During the middle and late periods of the Kangxi reign, the struggle for the succession was fraught with tension. Countless noble Manchu clans and prominent families were ruined by choosing the wrong side. The two most famous ministers of the era, Mingju and Songgotu, both met miserable ends.

With the Tong family backing her, even if she did not get involved, there was no guarantee that the Tong men in the imperial court would not choose a side. The court and the harem were inextricably linked; a defeat in the court would inevitably affect the concubines in the harem.

A sudden chill rose from the depths of Tong Jiahe's heart. Now that she held such a high position, she could not tell for the moment whether it was a blessing or a curse.

Looking up in a daze, she saw that the person in the mirror had a sallow complexion. Although the face was almost identical to her own in the modern world, seeing it always filled her with a strange, heart-stopping unfamiliarity.

Puyu was highly skilled at styling hair. Suppressing the strange feeling in her heart, Tong Jiahe reached up and touched her own hair.

The original Noble Consort Tong had placed great importance on her hair, washing it every two days and treating it with various floral oils to keep it glossy, black, and thick.

Judging by her hair alone, she must have been very healthy before. Tong Jiahe could not help but feel secretly alarmed. What on earth had the Noble Consort gone through to make such a healthy person lose her vitality so quickly?

Tong Jiahe looked at herself in the mirror once more.

She had just turned twenty-one, and the original Noble Consort Tong was of the exact same age. Their facial features were remarkably similar, saving her from having to accept an entirely unfamiliar face. This was a stroke of luck amidst her misfortune.

Yet, this small bit of luck was merely finding joy in sorrow. When she smiled, the reflection in the mirror smiled back. For a brief moment, Tong Jiahe felt a true sense of reality—that the person in the mirror was indeed herself.

However, the smile on her face did not last long before freezing.

After staying cooped up in Chengqian Palace for three days, she finally remembered something. In her memories, there was a child being raised by Noble Consort Tong's side—the Fourth Prince, born to Concubine De.

Even if the two-year-old Fourth Prince was exceptionally well-behaved and sensible, one should still hear a child's voice in Chengqian Palace.

Tong Jiahe's eyes widened in alarm. She turned around and asked Puyu, "Where is the Fourth Prince?"

Her sudden, agitated turn was so abrupt that her hair ornaments clinked loudly. Sensing an ominous premonition, Tong Jiahe's heart sank.

Puyu's expression turned slightly grim. Taking a deep breath, she said, "On the day you fell ill, the Fourth Prince was taken away by the senior maids from Cining Palace."

Hearing this, Tong Jiahe frowned deeply. By this calculation, the Fourth Prince had been taken away the day before she transmigrated, and the servants from Cining Palace had also taken all the maids who attended to him.

Puyu assisted the Noble Consort with her morning washing. A long silence fell over the hall. Mistress and servant stood in silence, and Tong Jiahe felt an indescribable, suffocating weight in her chest.

Years ago, Empress Renxiao had passed away after giving birth to the Crown Prince. Not long after, Empress Xiaozhao, as the designated successor, entered the palace with the rank of Consort in the fifteenth year of Kangxi's reign, and was officially crowned Empress the following year.

In February of the seventeenth year of Kangxi's reign, Empress Xiaozhao passed away. It was now the twentieth year of Kangxi's reign, meaning Empress Xiaozhao had been gone for three years.

Noble Consort Tong had originally hoped to secure the position of Empress after Empress Xiaozhao's passing. Yet, at the final moment, she had been deflected by a few deft words from the Grand Empress Dowager, remaining stuck in the position of Noble Consort.

With such a grand family background and her childhood bond with the Emperor, how could she willingly yield the Empress's throne to another? Seeing that she had no hope of moving into the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, the Noble Consort could not help but feel utterly stifled and aggrieved.

Over the past few days since her transmigration, Tong Jiahe had come to understand her current situation. She had been recuperating in Chengqian Palace, and as for what illness she suffered from, no one dared to speak of it.

Usually, what people dared not speak of was an illness of the mind.

It was obvious that the Tong family had lost the race for the next Empress years ago. Subsequently, she could not even touch the position of Kangxi's third Empress, and now, her adoptive son, the Fourth Prince, had also been taken away.

Neither the throne of the Empress nor the child she yearned for had been secured. Even if her body had originally been free of disease, this long-standing heartache had eventually broken the Noble Consort's health.

"Your Ladyship, the pomegranate trees outside are in bloom. Would you like to go and have a look?"

Seeing the Noble Consort lost in thought, Puyu worried that excessive brooding would harm her health, so she quickly tried to distract her with other topics.

Blossoms in the palace were a good omen, and pomegranates were a symbol of many descendants and blessings. In the past, the Noble Consort would always linger when passing by the pomegranate trees. No woman in the palace did not wish for imperial offspring, and the Noble Consort of the Tunggiya clan was no exception.

As if in response to Puyu's words, the wind rustled the pomegranate trees outside the window, followed by a few short chirps of birds. From the sound, they seemed to be right under the veranda. Tong Jiahe could not help but lean forward to look; she had forgotten that birds were kept in Chengqian Palace.

After news of the Noble Consort's illness spread, the Tong family had sent this pair of birds within two days to help ease her boredom.

Seeing that this was a good opportunity to cheer the Noble Consort up, Puyu said with a smile, "This pair of birds was personally selected by the Second Master of the Tong family. The servants in the aviary all praise them for being far more intelligent than ordinary birds."

A few blurry faces surfaced in Tong Jiahe's mind. The original Noble Consort Tong had eight brothers and four sisters; it was a flourishing family. The only ones born of the same primary consort of Tong Guowei as the Noble Consort were her third sister, Yuruo, and her sixth brother, Qingfu. Since those two were still quite young, the Noble Consort was closest to her two eldest brothers.

These were all the Noble Consort's memories.

She had recognized the reality of her situation from the very first day of her transmigration, striving to adapt to this life and survive here as an ancient. Though she had not yet fully adjusted to this environment, fortunately, the original owner's memories could temporarily serve as a guide to survival.

As she recalled these matters, Tong Jiahe deeply sensed that the Noble Consort cared about the Empress's throne more than anything else—even her desire for children paled in comparison.

For the Tunggiya clan to produce another Empress had become an obsession carved into the Noble Consort's very bones.

The original owner had been highly competitive, and her own stubborn, unyielding nature was not much different. Her modern self was already dead, and to have a chance at a new life was already incredibly fortunate.

Since her transmigration into the Noble Consort's body and position was an unalterable fact, she would certainly strive to fulfill the original owner's wishes.

After all, there was no reason to receive benefits without doing the work. Besides, the Noble Consort's obsession was not a bad one; she was simply highly ambitious.

--

Meanwhile, Eunuch Xu of the Imperial Household Department hurried toward Chengqian Palace with several servants. Along the way, they ran straight into servants from Yonghe Palace who were heading to the Imperial Household Department to fetch ice.

"Oh my, what errand is this? To think it would trouble Eunuch Xu to make this trip personally."

The speaker was the head maid of Concubine De. She was the most favored among the servants of Yonghe Palace, and even the Emperor recognized her.

Eunuch Xu had no choice but to stop and exchange a few polite words. Finally, pointing in the direction of Chengqian Palace, he said, "I am heading over there."

While conversing with Eunuch Xu, the maid kept casting glances at the servants behind him. Noticing a senior maid in her forties standing at the back, she looked closely at her a few more times before finally taking her leave.

After leading his group a short distance forward, Eunuch Xu stole a glance back. Seeing that the people from Yonghe Palace had disappeared down the path, he spat softly.

Ever since the lady of Yonghe Palace had been promoted to the rank of Concubine on her own, the servants under her had become increasingly arrogant.

In terms of seniority, the two head maids serving Noble Consort Tong certainly ranked above those of Yonghe Palace, and they were always polite whenever they met him. Yet the people around Concubine De always looked down their noses at them.

The palace had been without an Empress for three years, and all affairs were managed by Cining Palace. Any eunuchs or maids below who wished to climb the ranks would seek a patron.

Currently, the only high-ranking resident in the palace was in Chengqian Palace. Aside from the two late Empresses, no one in the harem possessed a nobler birth than Noble Consort Tong. Moreover, as His Majesty's maternal cousin, she carried herself with immense prestige both inside and outside the palace.

Now that the Fourth Prince had been taken by the Grand Empress Dowager, Yonghe Palace actually believed they could use this opportunity to bring him back to raise him.

Setting aside that the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager were in excellent health despite their advanced age, the consort from Mongolia had no princes or princesses of her own. In terms of closeness to the two Dowagers, even if Noble Consort Tong fell from grace, it would never be Yonghe Palace's turn to raise the Fourth Prince.

Remembering that he had an errand specifically entrusted to him by his superiors, Eunuch Xu quickened his pace. Only when the gates of Chengqian Palace were within sight did a trace of a smile appear in his eyes.

Who could have expected that the moment he entered, he would see Lady Chen, a low-ranking consort of Chengqian Palace, standing before the Noble Consort's doors, weeping in the wind.

Eunuch Xu's smile froze on his face. He inwardly cursed himself for not checking the almanac before leaving today. Not only had he failed to complete his errand, making the trip in vain, but he had also drawn the attention of all the other palaces.

What bad luck, truly bad luck!