Chapter 3
The Empress smiled and asked which family’s young master had caught my eye.
Xiao Jinhe’s name hovered on my lips, but I could not force it out.
Every moment in that dream had felt as real as something I had lived through myself. In truth, those years had worn away almost all the affection I once felt for him.
What remained was probably no more than resentment at having lost.
“Your Majesty, I…”
Before I could finish, a sudden commotion swept through the crowd. The servants swarmed in front of the Empress and Xiao Jinhe to shield them.
An arrow shot straight toward me, its tip flashing with a vicious glint. In my daze, it became an endless storm of arrows bearing down on me—ten thousand shafts piercing my heart…
The terror of death consumed me.
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!
“Xiao Jinhe! Please, I don’t want to die!”
The arrow thudded into the table before me. I snapped back to my senses, only then realizing how absurd my outcry had been.
Fortunately, the scene was in chaos. Most likely, no one had noticed my lapse.
Someone seized my arm and hauled me to my feet.
“Why didn’t you move?”
There was a hint of anger in Xiao Jinhe’s voice.
I kept my head bowed, afraid to look at him. A bellyful of words lodged in my throat, but I dared not speak. I was afraid I would burst into tears, and I refused to humiliate myself.
Someone came galloping toward us. Xiao Jinhe snapped, “Wanyan Shu, you grow more unruly by the day!”
“Unruly I may be. What can Your Highness do about it?”
The man’s voice sounded above my head—deep and unconcerned, arrogant and insolent.
All I saw was a well-defined hand pluck the arrow from the table, yet my entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.
The man on horseback gave a soft laugh. He was mocking me, laughing at me for being a coward.
Wanyan Shu. It was Wanyan Shu…
This was the man who would lead iron cavalry to trample our realm.
This was the man who would demand my life as the price for peace and sentence me to death by ten thousand arrows.
Because in my dream, I had blinded him in one eye.
In recent years, the northern Kingdom of Di had grown powerful. Its forces had clashed with ours time and again, leaving both sides badly depleted.
To preserve the peace, the two kingdoms exchanged royal hostages and agreed not to violate each other’s borders.
Wanyan Shu was the unfortunate prince sent as their hostage. Unfortunate, one might say—but after more than three months in the capital, he seemed to be thriving more with every passing day.
He was cunning to the bone. He had arrived with three maids, each more voluptuous and alluring than the last, and promptly planted them in the imperial harem. His intention to beguile the Emperor could not have been more obvious.
His Majesty was no foolish ruler, but when faced with such beauties, he still granted Wanyan Shu every convenience without hesitation.
I had never seen a hostage prince behave with such audacity.
He was allowed to ride within the palace, and unless he was appearing before the Emperor, he could even carry a bow and arrows. He enjoyed greater privilege than Xiao Jinhe, the Crown Prince himself.
Yet in truth, while the entire court denounced his reckless behavior in public, they whispered in private: The Wanyan clan was said to be calm and shrewd, but this one was merely an arrogant good-for-nothing. He posed no threat.
Even I found it hard to believe that a man like Wanyan Shu would one day murder his brother and father, then become the greatest danger to our realm.
But I had seen that possibility, and I was truly afraid of him.
He was a monster raised among beasts.
He was a lustful, brutal warmonger.