Chapter 2
When my sister arrived, Xiao Jinhe was wiping away my tears. She yanked him aside and struck his chest with her fist.
“Xiao Jinhe, are you abandoning me?”
She had no respect for propriety, and Xiao Jinhe adored her for it.
“What nonsense. Doesn’t your hand hurt?”
He chided her with a smile, every word brimming with affection.
“Mother told me everything. She said you and Luo Yufu… the two of you… that Her Majesty the Empress is going to have you marry her…”
Her lips trembled as she sobbed. Bright and vivacious on ordinary days, she only looked more pitiful and endearing when she cried.
Xiao Jinhe pressed an index finger to his lips, signaling for her to keep her voice down.
His gaze swept over me as he declared, each word firm and emphatic, “The Second Young Lady saved my life. Such a debt is beyond words, and I will repay her handsomely. But there will be nothing more.”
There would be nothing more.
In Xiao Jinhe’s eyes, my chastity was worth nothing at all.
His words drenched me like a basin of icy water, chilling me to the bone.
I had known Xiao Jinhe for six years.
Every special kindness he had once shown me, every moment when he had made my heart flutter, now became proof that I had made a fool of myself.
After several days of convalescence, Her Majesty the Empress invited me to the palace.
She hosted a banquet in the imperial gardens, laying out my favorite plum dew and pastries, and spoke warmly of how much she liked me.
“I have long heard that Censor Luo’s second daughter is aloof from the crowd and exceptional in every way. Now that I have met you, I see your reputation was richly deserved.
“If I could have such a remarkable girl for a daughter-in-law, I would burn incense and thank the Buddha for the blessing.
“Jinhe tells me your birthday is approaching. Is there anything you would like?”
The mood was so pleasant that I drank two cups too many, and soon my cheeks were flushed.
How I wished I could borrow courage from the wine and ask for a future with Xiao Jinhe.
“Your Majesty, I beg your pardon for my boldness, but I wish to ask for a marriage.”
Xiao Jinhe sat opposite me. His fingers tightened around his wine cup, and a chill entered his expression.
If I forced him to marry me, would he truly have the heart to let me die beneath ten thousand arrows?
In my dream, after our marriage, my sister’s threats to take her own life had thrown the entire capital into an uproar. The Empress, enraged, punished her by ordering her to shave her head and become a nun.
No one expected Xiao Jinhe to disregard every law and moral bond, storm into the nunnery, and bring her back to the Crown Prince’s residence by force.
He loved her. He would love her even if it meant defying the whole world.
His life had always gone smoothly. There had never been anything he wanted that he could not obtain.
But how could something placed readily into his hands compare with something he had fought for himself?
His love for my sister grew more dazzling each time it was tested and refined.
It was no longer merely a love affair. It was the shining triumph of a man who had stood alone and defied the wrath of heaven itself.
She was his precious pearl, the proof of his fearlessness. How could he ever let that pearl be tarnished?
And so I had to die.
Only when I was gone would the splendid pedestal be vacant, ready to display the celebrated tale of a man who had risked everything for his beloved.