The Last Concubine

like a—”
    “Like a snake in its death throes? Enough! I shall take your word for it that she is a paragon of all female graces,” Hüi Wei said, laughing. “Take care you don’t fall under her spell. It is punishable by death to dally with another man’s concubine.”
    “Then you mean to keep her?”
    “I have not yet decided,” Hüi said coolly.
    “But you’re not sending her back?”
    Hüi opened the door to his private chamber. “Come in with me.”
    Jiang entered the room, shutting the door behind him. “What game are you playing at? Do not hide your teeth with me.”
    “What does he say in that scroll?”
    Jiang unrolled it. “If I’m reading between the lines correctly, he is hoping to prevent you from invading his province and hopes you will honor your mutual borders. That means he’s doing something that he doesn’t want you to know about but warrants an invasion. Perhaps he’s hoping to distract your attention with her beauty.”
    Hüi flung himself into a chair with none of the deliberate ceremony he had employed in the audience chamber when taking the throne. He poured both of them a cup of huáng jiǔ and took a sip before he spoke. “I shall keep her for a time, if only in order to find out what Wu Min’s plan is. He is ambitious and clever but owes allegiance only to himself. He is a careful man. I have fought on the same field with him, and he does not commit to an attack when it will not benefit him personally, no matter what treaty he’s signed. He resorts to deceit and trickery to get what he wants.”
    “And by giving you this girl, he hopes to gain—what? That her beauty will occupy you to the point that he may march past you on the way to the sea?” Jiang laughed at the thought of any woman distracting Hüi Wei to the point of neglecting his sacred, heaven-decreed duty. “He doesn’t know you well.”
    “At the very least, if you had allowed her guard to remain with her, he would have planted some spies in my court. Who knows? Perhaps she spies for him.” Hüi Wei held the glass up to the light, gazing at the golden liquor. “He judges others to be lesser strategists than himself. That is Wu Min’s greatest handicap. No, he has some other reason for sending me this girl. Something he hopes to gain by putting me in possession of her. Perhaps she was born under a curse and brings bad luck to whatever roof she resides under, despite her beauty. The gods sometimes amuse themselves by giving a gift with one hand and taking it back with the other.” He laughed. “It must have gone against his grain to give up that tribute of silver, pearls, and silk, simply to disguise his true intent. He must be confident that he will be able to retrieve it all at some point. Wu Min does not open his fist easily.”
    “He cannot hope that her presence will lead to strife in your household,” Jiang mused in a perplexed voice. “A man does not concern himself with the petty squabbles of mere concubines.”
    “Even Wu Min would not make that mistake,” Hüi Wei agreed dryly. “Have her escorted to the seventh house.”
    “When you do see her, do you think she will tell you why Wu Min sent her?”
    “She may not know. And I shall not see her, not at once,” Hüi said.
    “I thought not,” Jiang said in a satisfied tone. “The news will be conveyed to Wu Min that you have ignored his gifts. Leaving them on the floor as you did when you left the audience room was a stroke of genius. Perhaps it might spur him to an incautious action.”
    “Perhaps,” Hüi said. “In any case, have all the tribute cataloged and taken to the strong room.”
    “With the exception of the Princess Lan’xiu,” teased Jiang.
    “Find out about that family,” Hüi said suddenly. “It must be a most heartless man to send his own sister to endure the fate of becoming a minor concubine in an established household. I could not do it, even if the emperor commanded it. There is something odd behind this whole affair.”
    “I shall see that the princess is established in the seventh house with her servant, but I shan’t make her too comfortable just yet. And perhaps I might arrange a meeting between her and first wife, Lady Mei Ju?”
    A slow smile crossed Hüi’s lips. “I knew there was some reason I kept a jester in my court.”
    “Jester! I am no jester!” Jiang exclaimed in pretended outrage. “The joke would be on you if I took that insult to heart and made humor my primary objective in