Empress Orchid - Anchee Min [144]
Tung Chih had fallen asleep in my arms. He didn’t wake up when Doctor Sun Pao-tien removed him so Nuharoo and I could wash our husband’s face with wet silk towels. We touched Hsien Feng gently. He looked relieved in death.
“It is time to dress His Majesty,” Chief Eunuch Shim said. “Better to do it now, before His Majesty’s body hardens.”
The eunuchs came with the eternal robe and we bowed to our husband and then retreated.
An-te-hai carried the sleeping Tung Chih as we walked out of the Hall of Fantastic Haze.
I wept, thinking how terrible it was that Hsien Feng had died at such a young age.
Nuharoo interrupted my thoughts. “You shouldn’t have intruded. You made a fool of me in front of His Majesty.”
“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to,” I said.
“You embarrassed me by not trusting that I would take care of the matter.”
“Tung Chih needed to hear his father’s words, and there was no time.”
“If anyone should speak for Tung Chih, it should be me. Your action was at the very least thoughtless, Lady Yehonala!”
I was irritated but chose not to say anything. I knew I would need Nuharoo to win the war against Su Shun.
I held my son when I went to bed. It must have been hard for Su Shun to live with the fact that I was not only exempt from being buried alive but also granted the power to bar him from his ambition.
I was exhausted but couldn’t relax. My sorrow for Hsien Feng had begun to wash over me. Concern for the safety of my son cut through my melancholy. I recalled Yung Lu’s unannounced rescue. Had he been watching over Tung Chih and me? I must not forget that Su Shun was his superior. Was Yung Lu a part of Su Shun’s conspiracy?
Lying in bed, I went over the list of regents one by one. The men’s faces were clear in my mind. Aside from Su Shun, they were scholars who had earned the highest academic degrees and ministers who had served long in the court, including Tuan Hua, Su Shun’s half-brother, and Prince Yee, a bully who was a first cousin of Emperor Hsien Feng and also the Imperial commissioner. If I knew little of their accomplishments, I knew enough to realize that they were as power-hungry and dangerous as Su Shun.
I examined Prince Yee’s record particularly. He was the only relative to whom Hsien Feng had entrusted power. Su Shun must have whispered into the Emperor’s ear, but why? Prince Yee’s Imperial blood, I thought. Su Shun needed Yee to mask his evil intentions.
The next day, the regents, whom Nuharoo called the “Gang of Eight,” visited the two of us. It was plain that Su Shun held the keys to the gang’s thinking. At the reception, business was avoided. It seemed that Tung Chih’s schooling and care were enough responsibility for us. The gang proposed to lift our burden by sparing us from the court’s affairs, to which Nuharoo foolishly expressed appreciation.
Su Shun was the last to arrive. He said that he had been extremely busy with events on the frontier. I asked if he had heard anything from Prince Kung. He replied in the negative. He was lying. An-te-hai had re-ported that Prince Kung had sent four urgent documents for approval, none of which received attention.
I confronted Su Shun regarding the documents. He first denied having ever received them. Upon my suggestion that we summon Prince Kung, he admitted that the documents had been misplaced somewhere in his office. He asked me not to bother with matters I had nothing to do with. He emphasized that my interest in the court’s business was “an act of disrespect to the deceased Emperor.”
I reminded Su Shun that no edicts would be valid without the two seals Nuharoo and I possessed. Whether Prince Kung’s requests were granted, denied or held, Nuharoo and I must be informed. I hinted to Su Shun that I was aware of what he had been doing: promoting and demoting provincial governors on his own.
As the days passed, the tension between Su Shun and me grew so intense that we had to avoid each other. I understood