Zhi Hao. He landed in a fighting crouch on the ground in front of her. But he didn’t attack. He slowly stood until he was an effective barrier between her and her father. And then, he bowed respectfully to the man. His words were low, quick, and yet still deferential.
“Do not blame her for my sins. I know you fear the worst, but she is still pure.”
“Cur! I trusted you!”
Her father punched Zhi Hao straight in the face. And though she knew Zhi Hao could block it, he did not. He allowed the blow to fall, his head snapping to the side. But when her father meant to follow up the blow, Ling Xin leaped forward. He would beat Zhi Hao to death. She knew the younger man wouldn’t raise a hand to defend himself.
“Stop it, Baba!”
She tried to run between the two men, but Zhi Hao caught her and set her aside. It was a quick move and one that her father hadn’t expected. He’d been going to grab her as well but caught Zhi Hao instead. And in the pause as they both started to regroup, Ling Xin spoke her piece.
“You want me to be empress, Baba! Then stop this madness!” And when her father raised his fist, she gripped his shirt. “Think!”
It was an aggressive move, one that she’d often seen him do to her brothers. It jerked their heads back and broke their concentration. In this case, she hoped it broke through his rage.
It did not. The man lunged for her, but Zhi Hao was there to protect her. As Baba leaped at her, Zhi Hao twisted him around, quickly pinning the man face down on the ground. Her father roared in protest, but Zhi Hao did not let him up.
“You may beat me all you want, but you may not touch her,” he said. And he had to keep repeating it until her father exhausted himself. But in that time, the whole household had roused. Soon they were surrounded by her mother, Li Fei, and several retainers who were quickly shooed back to bed. They didn’t leave, though, until Mama crouched down beside her husband.
“You are making this worse,” she said. It was her voice that broke through Baba’s fury.
The man stilled. A moment later, Zhi Hao stepped back to let her father rise. The man did so with angry, jerking movements. But he didn’t attack. Instead, they all glared at one another.
“What is the meaning of this?” her mother asked, her voice low but no less angry.
Ling Xin stepped forward. “Baba thinks something that is not true.”
Her father glared at her. “You were over the wall. You were with him!”
“I was teaching him Manchu.”
Her father snorted, but Mama looked at Zhi Hao. “Is this true?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.
Ling Xin looked to her mother. “I can prove my purity. I can still be empress!” She said the words though inside she tightened with anxiety. She had heard how humiliating the examination could be.
“I will check you myself,” her mother snapped. “Why would you go over the wall? You know what could happen!”
She did know. She’d been doing it. “You demand I become empress, but you do not teach me about the things I need to know.”
Beside her, she felt Zhi Hao stiffen, but she ignored him. She couldn’t look at him when she confessed.
“We have taught you everything!” her father all but roared.
“Not about the Forbidden City,” she returned. “You have taught me from the cradle to barter for what I need. I taught him Manchu. He taught me about his uncle who is a eunuch inside the Forbidden City.” She threw up her hands as if disgusted, when in truth she was terrified. Her father would be within his rights to kill both her and Zhi Hao.
“And what good—” began her mother, but her father understood.
“What do you know of this eunuch? Will he help you?”
“He is the only contact I have there. And only because I bartered with Zhi Hao for it.”
Her father shook his head. “I have given bribes. You had no need—”
“There is need, father,” she interrupted. “You know there is.”
He was silenced because it was true. Meanwhile, her mother stepped forward to stare hard, not at Zhi Hao, but at Ling Xin.