Tie Ci strolled leisurely back to the palace.
She wasn’t worried at all about Dan Ye pursuing her.
She had confidence in the brothels on that street.
And in the two grand maids’ view, the Imperial Princess could feel confident about all the brothels in the Great Qian.
This certainly wasn’t because the Imperial Princess was the behind-the-scenes owner of all the brothels, but purely because several years ago, the Empress Dowager suddenly had the whim to ban all brothels under heaven. This was originally a good thing, but the method of banning wasn’t wonderful. The Empress Dowager believed prostitutes used beauty to seduce people and corrupted moral principles, so she ordered all prostitutes to have their faces tattooed and be exiled to various barbarous lands.
Those places were either extremely hot or perpetually snowy. Once these pampered women went there, the journey alone could kill them. And the face-tattooing punishment would also eliminate any possibility of receiving care.
When this decree was issued, all the beauties wept in sorrow. But their status was lowly, and though they knew countless high officials and nobles, at critical moments, those high officials and nobles were unwilling to acknowledge knowing them.
Later, a bold woman, left with no choice, blocked the Imperial Princess’s carriage on her way back to the palace from Qingjing Temple, begging the Imperial Princess to save them for the sake of being fellow women.
These words were actually extremely offensive, yet the Imperial Princess at the time didn’t get angry, though she also didn’t promise on the spot. She only said she would try to mediate, which sounded completely like an excuse. The women watched the phoenix carriage depart in despair, already preparing for collective suicide.
After Tie Ci returned to the palace, she invited Minister Gu through Gu Xiaoxiao.
The next day, Minister Gu submitted a memorial proposing that while banning brothels certainly accorded with human ethics, having so many prostitutes throughout the realm all escorted to the frontiers would consume military strength and grain. Even after escorting them there, they couldn’t do labor, only adding to the roadside bones and harming heavenly harmony, which would also damage the Empress Dowager’s virtuous reputation. It would be better to have them atone through merit, ban private prostitution, convert to official prostitutes, take turns doing labor one month each year, donate labor earnings to charity halls, and increase taxes on brothels and music halls and other pleasure establishments, etc.
In plain terms, this meant utilizing these women, having them work more and pay more taxes to increase national fiscal revenue and make some contribution to the people.
Tie Ci knew that among the civil and military officials in court, quite a few had extraordinary relationships with certain famous courtesans and were reluctant to part with them, but couldn’t easily take the lead.
Only Minister Gu was an upright man who didn’t like getting involved in such matters, only caring about how to extract enough silver from the limited national treasury to satisfy various parties’ demands. As long as you told him something could make money, he would definitely be willing to take the lead.
Sure enough, once Minister Gu spoke up, people stood out with various reasons to tactfully plead for these prostitutes. All civil officials had silver tongues. The Empress Dowager finally relented and adopted Minister Gu’s suggestion, and the capital’s prostitutes escaped with their lives.
Later, when people understood the inside story, every prostitute in the capital secretly enshrined the Imperial Princess’s longevity tablet in her boudoir.
That year, the Imperial Princess was eleven years old.
So never mind fooling a Western Rong little wolf king—even if they had to skin and debone this wolf, the prostitutes would roll up their sleeves and do it!
As for spreading rumors and creating jokes throughout court and countryside, if Tie Ci wanted something spread at the third watch, she absolutely wouldn’t delay until the fifth watch.
Tie Ci was also the behind-the-scenes boss of the capital’s trending topics.
After Tie Ci returned to the palace, the first thing she did was hurriedly pack and begin sealing the palace.
It was already late—time to get moving quickly.
While Chi Xue and Dan Shuang were being directed around by her, they asked in puzzlement, “Your Highness, when the Imperial Princess leaves the palace for training, it requires the Ministry of Rites to specially arrange ceremonial processions and announce it to the world, with all officials escorting her ten li out of the capital. Even at fastest, it would take half a month to complete all these arrangements. Why are you in such a rush?”
“What? Do you want the whole world to know when I’m leaving the capital, how many people I’m bringing, where I’m going, so they can arrange robberies and assassinations?” Tie Ci raised her eyebrows. “Or do you think those capital noble sons who were implicated by me and forced to leave the capital to suffer hardships have high moral character and broad minds, and definitely won’t think of using the opportunity of leaving the capital together with me to unite and scheme against me?”
A moment of silence.
Chi Xue turned and went out: “Sisters, find my Perfect Tonic Hundred Treasures Pouch and the Complete Gossip Guide to Capital Sons!”
Dan Shuang silently took out a pair of gloves studded with copper nails and put them on.
“Little Bug, you stay to watch the house. All the sisters in this palace, the flowers and plants, cats and dogs—from my hairband down to Little Apricot’s undergarment—if even one is missing, I’ll hold you responsible.”
“Rest assured, when you return to count, I guarantee there will only be extras, definitely nothing missing.”
“…That’s not necessary either. Also, not everyone in this palace is necessarily trustworthy. While I’m away, lock the palace doors, decline visitors, and don’t easily allow people to go out and make contacts.”
“Rest assured. While you’re away, even the bell on Xue Qiu’er’s neck won’t ring once!”
“…That’s not necessary either.”
Half an hour later, after everyone else had extinguished their lights and gone to sleep, Tie Ci quietly left the palace with her two grand maids.
She didn’t leave immediately but circled around to Jingren Palace. The palace gates were already closed and the Emperor had retired. The Baize Guards responsible for palace defense patrolled like weaving flowers. Tie Ci nimbly took advantage of when two shifts were changing, flashed to a corner, pushed aside the bushes by the wall, where there was a round hole that looked like a dog hole.
The noble Imperial Princess stuck her bottom up and crawled through.
Only she and the Emperor knew about this hole—it was the secret weapon for their childhood hide-and-seek games. It had been neglected for many years but now came in handy again.
Without disturbing a speck of dust, she entered the sleeping quarters. Tie Ci placed a letter on the desk and casually put a long rectangular cushion on the desk.
This was something she had made after hearing her teacher mention something called a mouse pad. Father Emperor spent years reviewing memorials until his wrists had developed calluses—having such a cushion to rest on should help somewhat.
She turned around and looked at the Emperor sleeping on the bed. A line of moonlight swept across his brows, which were tightly furrowed.
Tie Ci stood silently in the moonlight.
Father Emperor always showed her a cheerful face during the day. This was the first time she discovered that when Father Emperor slept, his brows were so tightly furrowed.
This puppet throne, these turbulent mountains and rivers, this cold palace, these mountain-like restraints—ultimately they had taken away the spirited young emperor from her memories, replacing him with today’s weathered middle age.
If she could never awaken the imperial bloodline, then what kind of cold moon and harsh sounds, what kind of smoky imperial city would this weathered middle-aged man face?
After a long while, she stepped forward and tucked the quilt corner tightly around her father.
Then she turned and left.
The spring night’s moonlight was soft and hazy. Peach and apricot blossoms had closed their buds, branches slanting against the pale blue sky. Those touches of light red and delicate beauty looked like colorful stars on the horizon.
Tie Ci took one last distant look at the peach blossoms from Dianfang Palace that were more numerous than elsewhere, extending beyond the palace walls, then quietly stepped out of the inner palace gates.
Palace gates couldn’t be opened at night, but she had spent many years in the palace and still had a few people she could use.
After exiting through the slightly opened palace gate and crossing the moonlit palace gate plaza, the carriage arranged by her teacher was already waiting at the plaza’s edge. The driver was a deaf-mute, also sent by her teacher.
By not using palace guards or mobilizing the Imperial Princess’s Nine Guards, Empress Dowager Xiao wouldn’t receive news so quickly.