The Emperor’s anger would not subside. He didn’t know where his rage came from. He only felt that Sansan was terribly heartless and resentful.
He’d wanted to punish him, so he’d locked him away in the Cold Palace, and then ostentatiously summoned the Male Concubines in a grand display. Then he’d deliberately sent someone to the Cold Palace to inform them that he’d brought the Male Concubines into the palace. It was a ridiculous act, but the Emperor didn’t realize how ridiculous he was becoming.
“…I deeply regret to report, Your Majesty, but it seems his strength has greatly weakened, as he has not yet awakened from sleep.”
Head Eunuch Han bowed his head even lower as he reported for the second time what he’d already reported half a shichen ago.
Why was the Cold Palace called the Cold Palace? It was the Cold Palace because even sunlight ceased there. It was a place where the resentment and yin energy of countless women across generations had accumulated, a place where light barely penetrated, perpetually damp and even the air turbid. No one who entered this place survived.
But what use was it to send him to such a Cold Palace? The Emperor had cast Sansan alone into the Cold Palace, but barely one sikgyeong later, he sent all his trusted aides he’d dispatched to Sinmyeongsa back to the Cold Palace to care for Sansan.
Was that all? After hearing from Yeongchae that cold energy was flowing through Sansan’s body, he even sent Imperial Physician Do to the Cold Palace. Following Imperial Physician Do’s instructions, braziers, bathtubs, gold needles, medicinal pouches—all sorts of things had now been brought into the Cold Palace.
“You mean he’s still sleeping? Then what about his meals?”
“He, he cannot get up at all…”
Before Head Eunuch Han could finish speaking, another loud bang shook the bedchamber.
“No matter what crime he committed, he is a Bin carrying my seed, yet you dare treat one who has received my favor so carelessly!”
The Emperor roared furiously like autumn frost. He’d been the one to imprison him, and now he was venting his anger in the wrong place, but there was nothing Head Eunuch Han could do. The only path for the sake of all the palace servants was to soothe the Emperor and pull Sansan back out of the Cold Palace.
“Those are most undeserved words, Your Majesty. Bin Jin could not regain his senses at all and was talking nonsense, so Imperial Physician Do personally brewed medicinal decoctions and is watching over him as he sleeps. However, the Cold Palace is inherently strong in yin energy, damp and even turbid—how could it be a suitable place for someone who has given birth? This servant worries that the precious Imperial Grandson might be harmed. I dare to plead that if Your Majesty would first show mercy and forgive Bin Jin, how could Bin Jin commit such a crime again in the future? Bin Jin will surely understand Your Majesty’s sincerity, Your Majesty. Please look upon this with compassion.”
Even to Head Eunuch Han’s gritted-teeth pleading, the Emperor remained silent. He gulped down several cups of wine in succession from the new cup a court lady brought, maintaining his silence for quite some time.
But everyone present knew. Head Eunuch Han had merely petitioned at the right time with tact for what the Emperor wanted to hear.
“…Though Bin Jin lost all sense of heaven and earth and committed a crime, there is some logic to your words that the Cold Palace is not a place for someone who has given birth. Indeed, for one who is lacking and foolish, it would be more appropriate to soothe and teach rather than rule harshly.”
“Your words are most wise, Your Majesty.”
“Considering the duty Bin Jin bears, I was momentarily heated. As a Bin, he should think only of serving me, yet with my child in his belly, he acts recklessly—how could I simply overlook it? However, if I think with compassion, the one Bin Jin mourned was his own sibling, so I cannot completely fail to understand that grief. Moreover, haven’t I not shown him even once the Eighth Imperial Prince, who is privately his nephew? I was thoughtless.”
The Eighth Imperial Prince Yi Gang, born to Sanwol, had a higher status than a Bin. Those ranked Bi and below had to treat all Imperial Princes as superiors even if they were the birth mothers, and moreover, they couldn’t raise the Imperial Princes they bore themselves. Such was the law.
Of course, if the Emperor wanted, he could ignore such things easily enough, but the Emperor deliberately didn’t do so. Sansan was pregnant, and frankly, he was skeptical whether Sansan had the ability to properly care for even his own child. In such circumstances, he didn’t want to add unnecessary burden.
However.
“Please take Orabeoni with you too.”
The Emperor recalled Sansan’s desperate wailing again. Despite bestowing such favor on him, Sansan wanting to leave the palace was all because of Sanwol. The Emperor thought so.
It’s because the one he was attached to left. He’s naturally weak-hearted. Then, if he made something else for him to become attached to, that would solve it.
The baby in his belly didn’t seem to be such an existence yet, so the Emperor’s thoughts reached the conclusion that until it grew more, the Eighth Imperial Prince was needed.
“It seems I should send the Eighth Imperial Prince to Bin Jin to raise.”
At those words, Head Eunuch Han was shocked and lifted his head with a start. The Eighth Imperial Prince had already been sent to Suchanggung Palace according to proper protocol to be raised by Consort Shin.
“B-but, Your Majesty. Bin Jin has not yet reached a rank that allows him to take charge of raising an Imperial Prince. Please reconsider.”
“Then it would be right to elevate him to Bi at this opportunity. Han-ho, I intend to elevate Bin Jin to Bi Jin and grant him Mianggung Palace. Would that not be for the sake of the Eighth Imperial Prince and the two Imperial Grandsons in the Bin’s belly? You must immediately send someone to report my intentions to the Empress Dowager and urgently receive an auspicious date. I intend to go to the Cold Palace at once. Soothing the weak-hearted Bi so he can fulfill his duty is also a husband’s obligation—I must bring him myself.”
***
Mianggung Palace, one of the West Six Palaces, was the palace where the long-deceased Empress Hyohyeon Heon had resided during her lifetime. Empress Hyohyeon Heon, who was the same age as the Emperor, caught the eye of the late Emperor at the mere age of ten and was married to the current Emperor, who was then the Tenth Imperial Prince.
Later, when the Emperor ascended to the throne at the age of fifteen, she became Empress together with him, but unfortunately, she didn’t enjoy that glory for long and died young at the age of twenty, in the bloom of youth.
The relationship between the Emperor and Empress had been good. The Emperor, who had been even more arrogant and lawless than now, had never shown greatly rude speech to the Empress alone, and occasionally slept with the Empress even outside the scheduled conjugal days. However, despite their good marital harmony, there were no children between them.
Even after more than ten years had passed since her death, regarding the Emperor leaving the Empress’s position vacant, most people of the Empire thought it was because their marital affection had been that deep. The marketplace was filled with countless stories containing such popular sentiment. Whenever Mansujeol or holidays came around, famous storytellers would compete to sing of the Emperor couple’s sorrowful love story.
Head Eunuch Han, who had long attended the Emperor closely, had also inwardly agreed with that story to some degree, so seeing him truly grant Mianggung Palace, which had been kept empty all this time, to Sansan, he finally realized this was no ordinary matter.
In the current Imperial family, Empress Hyohyeon Heon had long become something like a sacred domain. Even though the Emperor had never spoken of it aloud, everyone watched the Emperor’s mood, honored and praised her, and absolutely never tried to infringe upon her position.
Had he misunderstood something? Head Eunuch Han stood one step away from the bedchamber of Dongchogan, located at the very eastern end of the rear hall of Mianggung Palace, attending the Emperor’s morning, pondering his past misunderstanding.
Last night, the Emperor who had personally gone to the Cold Palace carried the groaning Sansan in his own arms and brought him to Geoncheonggung Palace.
He stripped off Sansan’s wet sleeping garments as he dripped with cold sweat, received hot water from a court lady, and wiped and cared for that body with his own hands. In the process, unable to restrain himself, he abruptly questioned him several times—if not for Imperial Physician Do’s admonishment, he would have been holding onto someone who couldn’t even regain consciousness and engaging in bedroom affairs.
Barely making it through the night, the next day, he brought Sansan to Mianggung Palace, which had been refurbished anew overnight, and naturally addressed Sansan, who hadn’t even had his elevation ceremony yet, as Bi Jin. Then, to soothe Sansan who sat there barely holding back tears, he sent someone to Suchanggung Palace from the crack of dawn to bring the Eighth Imperial Prince.
“If you only cry like this, how can I trust you and entrust the Eighth Imperial Prince to you? Come, stop that now.”
“Sniff, sob. Th-then from now on, will Gang-i live with me?”
“That depends on you.”
And so, he coaxed Sansan, who clearly wasn’t well with a fever that wouldn’t break, to eat breakfast, showed him the infant’s face briefly, then suddenly dragged him to the bedchamber. As a result, he was currently engaging in bedroom affairs, having even postponed the morning audience.
“Ahh! Haah.”
“My goodness. After abstaining for just one day last night, your inner walls have annoyingly closed up tight again.”
The Emperor sucked on Sansan’s tear-soaked cheeks with wet sounds, spreading the index and middle fingers he’d inserted into the opening wide left and right. The inner walls that had been stuck together spread tautly along the thick, long fingers, dripping with arousal fluid. The more it did, the more intensely Sansan’s scent rose.
The Emperor urgently buried his nose in Sansan’s crown and deeply inhaled that scent. As if he were smoking opium.
Footnote
1) Mansujeol: The Emperor’s birthday.
