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The Consort of Closed Fists
by Lixin Foo
When the Emperor banished her in chains, her fingers moved on instinct.
As a child, she’d made a habit of clenching her fists in the face of adversity. Any blow by her stepmother could be borne with her joints locked tight. When her father arranged for her to become the local landlord’s ninth concubine, she clenched them bone-white; defiant.
The legend of her fists spread far and wide. Until one day, an augur whispered it into the ear of the most powerful man in China. At the old Emperor’s touch, her fist fell open — revealing a jade hook left as her grandmother’s only heirloom.
Lady Gouyi, they called her then. The Consort of Closed Fists.
Now, the once-beloved concubine glanced down at what the eunuchs had delivered to her prison door.
Beside the poisoned wine lay a single sheet of paper parchment, inked in an intimately familiar hand. Countless nights had she spent, grinding ink blocks into liquid sludge for the same man to craft royal decrees by candlelight.
For a son to prosper, his mother must perish.
So her husband had left her one last consolation before execution.
Had he agonized over this decision? Would he think of her at all, when they spirited her coffin away to be hastily buried as a disgraced concubine?
Phantom muscles pulsated in her fingers; the old impulse returning. But Lady Gouyi did not clench her fists now.
After years within the Palace’s gilded cage, desperately vying for royal affection, all to bear a child for fourteen months —
Perhaps death, with the promise that her favoured Fu Ling would ascend the throne one day, would mean freedom.
As her silhouette cast flickering shadows across the ornately patterned palace walls, Lady Gouyi felt the weight lift off her body.
She would depart as a sweet scent on the wind, leaving behind only a pair of shoes as proof of her worldly presence.
鉤弋夫人
符丽欣
当皇帝下旨令她锒铛入狱时，她的手指直觉地颤动了起来。
年幼时，她曾在逆境中以握紧双拳为习。只要她将关节锁紧，就能承受继母淫威所施的一切。当父亲安排她下嫁为当地地主的第九位妾室时，她将双拳捏得白骨铮铮。
她紧握的双拳成为了扬名四海的传奇。直到有一天，术士将此事传到了中土里权贵至尊的男人耳里。在老皇帝的触摸下，她的拳头松了开来 —— 从而露出了掌心中祖母遗留的玉钩。
从此以后，人们便称她为鉤弋夫人。
如今，曾经身怀荣宠的嫔妃垂眸看向了太监们传递到狱门前的事物。
鸩毒旁躺着一片沾满了那亲密不过的笔迹的纸页。她曾为了助那个男人宣写圣旨，以磨墨为汁度过了无数夜晚。
“若要立子，须除母威。”
如此看来，她的夫君在处刑之前将最后一点慰藉留给了她。
他是否为了这个决定痛苦过？在他们将她的棺材提走、匆匆草埋时，他会否为她留念片刻？
往昔的冲动复燃了；她的手指如幻肢般意欲抽搐。但鉤弋夫人不再握紧拳头。
这么多年来，在皇宫瑞丽的笼子里绝命地争夺龙宠、只为了怀胎十四月 ——
或许死亡，伴着她受宠的福灵将有朝一日登上皇位的承诺，将会成为自由的定义。
随着她轮廓在精致雕刻的宫窗上流连的倩影，鉤弋夫人只觉如释重负。
她将如熏香一般驾风离去，仅留下一双鞋为她曾在此世的痕迹。
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Lixin Foo is a Psychology undergraduate at the National University of Singapore. She co-founded and is the current design director for PLAYSET!, a literary magazine for youths, by youths.
